Cuttack: The local administration imposed Section 144 of the CrPc near Singhanathdev temple to maintain law and order after a 45-year-old woman was killed and 8 others, including several children, were injured in a stampede on the Badamba-Gopinathpur bridge over the Mahanadi in Odisha’s Cuttack district on Saturday.
The Executive Magistrate, Badamba, has clamped the prohibitory orders for two days, Sunday and Monday, restricting entry of people on the 3.4km long T-bridge, which connects Singhanath shrine located in the middle of the river, and cancelled all programmes. The bridge was inaugurated by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik in December 2021.
According to sources, over 1.5 lakh devotees thronged the shrine on the occasion of Makar Mela, which was being held after a gap of two years due to COVID restrictions, on Saturday while the administration had deployed only three platoons of the police force, expecting a gathering of only 30,000 to 40,000 devotees. The bridge got chock-a-block resulting in the stampede between 2.30 pm and 3.30 pm. Several people also fell unconscious because of the huge rush while many jumped off the bridge to the sand bed of the river and sustained injuries.
The deceased was identified as Anjana Swain of Pathapur under Barput gram panchayat in Banki-Dampada block. While five of the injured, including three boys, were shifted to SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack, two are undergoing treatment at Athagarh sub-divisional hospital.
The CM expressed grief over the incident and announced Rs 5 lakh ex-gratia for the next of kin of the deceased.
