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Stampede at Makar Sankranti Mela on Badamba-Gopinathpur bridge in Odisha kills at least Two

Badamba-Gopinathpu:14/1/23Tragedy struck a Makar Sankranti Mela in Odisha on Saturday as at least two people died in a stampede on the Badamba-Gopinathpur T-bridge in Cuttack. The injured were rushed to the Community Health Centre (CHC) at Badamba. According to reports, more than two lakh people attended the mela. An elderly woman was one of the two killed in the stampede.

Athagarh Sub-collector Hemanta Kumar Swain said the incident took place due to a sudden increase in the number of devotees, including women and children, in the afternoon to visit a fair organised on the occasion and also to pay obeisance to Lord Singhanath. Badamba-Narsinghpur MLA and former minister Debi Prasad Mishra confirmed that one woman, identified as 55-year-old Anjana Swain, died in the incident, while four seriously injured people were admitted to SCB Medical College Hospital in Cuttack city.

The festival has been cancelled and the entry of devotees into the temple has been restricted by the Cuttack district administration. The district administration has also imposed section 144 of the CrPC for two days. Sub-Collector Athagard will probe the whole incident, ordered the Cuttack DM. Three platoons of force have been deployed to control the law and order situation. Makar Mela is organised every year on Mahanadi riverbed near the shrine. Hundreds of devotees coming from Cuttack, Khordha, Puri, Angul, Dhenkanal, Boudh and Nayagarh districts visit the shrine.

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has grieved the death of a woman in stampede at the Makar Mela in Badamba Nrusinghanath Peetha in Cuttack district.The Chief Minister announced an ex-gratia of Rs 5 lakh to the next kin of the deceased and expressed his deep sympathies to the bereaved family. The Chief Minister has ordered to provision proper treatment to the injured at free of cost. He also wished a speedy recovery to the injured.

 

About Editor in chief

Ashok Palit has completed his graduation from Upendranath College Soro, Balasore and post graduation from Utkal University in Odia Language and literture.. He has also carved out a niche for himself as a scribe of eminence after joining the profession in 1988. He is also an independent media production professional. He brings loads of experience to Advanced Media, Ashok Palit as a cineaste has been active in film criticism for over three decades. As a film society activist, he soared to eminence for his profound commitment to the art film appreciation and aesthetics of cinema. His mode of discourse is often erudite but always lucid and comprehensible marked by a perfect acumen so rare in the field. A film aesthete with an immense fond of critical sensibilities, he wrote about growth and development of odia cinema in New Indian Express, The Times of India, The Hindustan Times, The Asian Age and Screen. He has been working as an Editor for Cine Samaya from 2002-2004.. He had made solid contribution on cinema in many odia Dailies and weekly such as Samaj, Prajatantra, Dharatri, Samaya, Satabadi, and weekly Samaya.
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