Death toll in market fire rises to 20

A 48-year-old person, injured in the Surya Sen Market blaze on Wednesday, died at the NRS Hospital on Friday morning taking the death toll to 20.

Meanwhile, the three agencies involved in the rescue-probe efforts, fire brigade, KMC and police, blamed "human negligence" for the disaster in their preliminary report submitted to chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday. The "sabotage" whiff, which the CM hinted on the day of the fire, however, didn't figure in it.

Fire services minister Javed Khan said: "Complete human negligence was behind the fire, for which the owners are responsible. There was only one entry and exit point in the building of that size. The mezzanine floor was illegal." What the minister said was nothing new, for Muchipara police on Wednesday night itself lodged an FIR against the three owners and the market committee president, for the incident.

The illegal mezzanine floor was controlled by the market committee. Though a part of the main building, this 18-odd foot space was given out by the original promoter Naren Saha to old settlers who refused to part with their holdings. All the 23 people (19 of them dead) were recovered by rescuers in this part.

"Today one more person died in the hospital. He was admitted to NRS with 80% burns," Joint CP (crime) Pallab Kanti Ghosh said, adding that a case has been filed against four persons but no arrest has been made so far. Meanwhile, forensic experts visited the site again on Friday and collected further samples. Ghosh said a case has been registered against four persons in connection with the fire.

The latest victim has been identified as Shankar Debnath (48), a resident of Talikhole in Nadia. He was admitted to NRS along with another victim Dinesh Chatterjee - for the past three days. The body was handed over to his relatives after the post mortem was completed at the hospital. The deceased was working in a shop selling plastic materials at the market. The news of the death took the assembled traders and labourers - most of them victims of the fire itself - in shock as they tried to remember Shankar who had returned to the market a few days ago after quitting his job. Some traders alleged that while politicians went to the Medical College Hospital, none visited NRS.

"His family should be compensated," said Shankar Ghosh, a local.

At the Kolkata Police Morgue, two bodies and a body part, among the previous 19 victims, are yet to be claimed among the 19 previous victims. Of this, one person is believed to be a fruit seller who used to stay there overnight for long. Though locals seem to know him, no blood-kin has stepped forward for identification.

Of the remaining bodies, police suspect of the remaining two one could be that of Ratan Poddar's. Ratan's mother Moumita Dutta Poddar - who has already lost her husband Radha Govinda Poddar in the fire - said none of the bodies are that of her son's. Ratan remains untraced in any local hospital too. A DNA test will now be conducted to establish whether any of these charred bodies is that of Ratan's.

The Lok Sabha on Friday condoled the deaths in the Surya Sen market blaze. Speaker Meira Kumar told the House, "As you are aware, 19 persons are reported to have been killed and several others injured in a major fire that broke out in a market in Kolkata on February 27, 2013. The House expresses its profound sorrow on this tragic incident which has brought pain and suffering to the affected families."

Friday 1 March 2013

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