Indore (Madhya Pradesh): Even as they mourned the dead, residents of Patel Nagar vent their ire over the alleged negligence of the police and SDERF in rescuing the victims.
The residents also alleged that they could have saved about 5-6 more people had not the police pushed them out of the premises.
“We could have saved more people in the initial rescue launched by the residents. We could have taken out all those still thrashing to stay afloat on the bawdi water but the cops reached the spot and pushed us out of the premises and disturbed the initial rescue,” Vipin Patel, a resident of Patel Nagar, said.
He alleged that the cops did nothing and stood waiting for SDERF to launch a rescue operation, but the emergency response team that reached the spot was unprepared.
Kantibhai Patel, president of the Patel Nagar Residents Association, said that despite informing the administration, the ambulance and rescue team did not reach the spot for an hour.
“After the accident, residents of Patel Nagar took the lead in the rescue, but they did not have enough resources and tools to pull out the victims from the bawdi,” he said.
Their helplessness was evident in a video that went viral on social media. It shows a man trying to pull a woman out of the bawdi by tying her with a rope, but the rope snapped, and the woman fell back into the bawdi with a gut-wrenching shriek.
Several citizens gathered around the temple were also seen complaining that the administration could not accurately gauge the magnitude of the tragedy and decided to call in the Army for rescue only after hours had elapsed.
Capital punishment for those who neglected warnings
Govind Agarwal, member of Sneh Nagar Vikas Mandal, said that even after complaining about the illegal construction, none of the authorities had taken any action in the matter. He said that the Mandal had submitted several applications to the IMC, district administration, and various politicians, however, no one took any action and they said that any move to remove the construction will hurt Hindu’s religious sentiments.
He said, “The nation is grieving over the incident, and I believe that all those who have been neglecting the warning along with those who supported the idea of continuing the temple construction should be given capital punishment.”
Four other bawdis in the area are covered: Kodwani
Social activist Kishore Kodwani alleged that there are four more such bawdis in the area on which illegal construction has been done and temples have been constructed.
“IMC had informed the court that out of about 1150 gardens in the city, temples are being made on over 63 of them. Immediate action should be taken to remove illegal constructions and action must be taken against the negligent officials who didn’t respond to the complaints of people,” Kodwani said.
We started timely rescue and saved over 20 people
“It was a calamity due to human error. The bawdi was years old and the slab on it was also rickety. Water and sticky mud in the bawdi were major challenges in the rescue operation that took about 24 hours. We started a timely rescue operation and saved over 20 people. We also fished out many bodies and later helped the NDRF and Army in the search operation.”
Virendra Singh Jadoun,
Company commandant, SDERF
