Carnival ride crash: Permissions granted, but admin not sure who conducted safety audit

A senior officer of the district administration told The Indian Express that the office of the Deputy Commissioner (DC) grants the permission for holding such events only after the organiser gets no objection certificates (NoCs) from various agencies: Municipal Corporation (MC), police department, Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA), Public Works Department (PWD), Taxation Department and Fire Department.

“We had granted the permission but we are investigating whether the physical safety audit was done by the department concerned or not,” said the officer requesting anonymity.

An officer of the technical wing of GMADA told The Indian Express that they had leased the land to the organiser while the MC had granted permission for the fire safety. The electrical and mechanical wing of the PWD was to conduct the safety audit of the ride.

The Chief Engineer of PWD, P J Arora, however, told The Indian Express that this was not the duty of his department.

But, if eyewitnesses are to be believed, the event organisers violated many instructions of the administration and put the life of people at risk.

A district administration officer said the permission was granted with the instructions that the organisers should follow the Punjab Assembly and Procession Guidelines/ Advisory, 2018.

The guidelines require the organiser to coordinate with the district administration and the police force so there is no physical harm to any person. The venue of procession or assembly should have sufficient entry and exit points to meet any emergent circumstances, and should ensure hassle-free evacuation of people in the event of man-made and natural disasters. The instructions also say that the procession/ assembly area should have sufficient parking places convenient to the participants.

Gurdeep Kaur, who was at the event when the incident happened, said that there was complete chaos and the bouncers hired by the organisers were misbehaving with the people and there was no proper space for parking and exit.

As per the instructions, the organisers had to videotape the entire event and submit a copy to the competent authority.

DC Talwar said that he had reviewed the incident Monday and formed a four-member committee comprising Additional Deputy Commissioner (ADC), GM (Industries), Mohali Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM) and Senior Engineer (Technical) for probing the incident within two days.

Meanwhile, the district police has registered a case under sections 337 (whoever causes hurt to any person by doing any act so rashly or negligently as to endanger human life, or the personal safety of others), 287 (negligent conduct with respect to machinery), 341 (wrongful confinement) and 323 (assault) of the Indian Penal Code at Phase VIII police station.

DSP (city-2) Harsimran Singh Bal said they are conducting raids to arrest the accused.

Asked whether the organisers had taken permissions, DSP Bal said according to the preliminary inquiry, the organisers had the permission to hold the show.

“We have initiated a probe, and will act accordingly,” Bal said.

When questioned why the organisers were charged with assault and wrongful confinement, Bal said that the people on the spot told them that when the incident happened, the bouncers had misbehaved with the people and also pushed some of them.

Bal added that a total of 16 people were injured in the incident and all the patients had been discharged on Monday from different hospitals in the city.

No first aid, says victim

The victims also indicated that there were violations on the part of organisers. Zeenat, who was injured in the incident, said that nobody could understand what had happened. She added that they could only know once the carnival ride had crashed to the ground.
“The carnival ride goes up and down. We felt it was going down but then suddenly there was a thud and we realised that something had gone wrong,” she added.

On first aid arrangements at the event, Zeenat said that there were no proper exit points and chaos everywhere and people panicked. There was no arrangement of any ambulance and other medical facility at the spot.

The event had been going on for the past one month. The entry fee was fixed at Rs 30. The organisers were charging Rs 70 per person for the ride that could seat 50 people at one time. The fair remained open from 3 pm to 10 pm.