Thirteen persons died and 18 others were hospitalised due to heatstroke at an award ceremony organised by the Maharashtra government in Navi Mumbai’s Kharghar on Sunday, ANI reported.
The Maharashtra Bhushan Award ceremony was held at an open ground between 11.30 am to 1.30 pm to felicitate social worker Dattatreya Narayan Dharmadhikari. It was attended by Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.
Eleven of those who died have been identified as Vinayak Haldankar, Tulsiram Wangad, Mahesh Gaikar, Swapnil Kini, Jayshree Patil, Vandana Patil, Manjusha Bombde, Savita Pawar, Kalawati Vaychal, Bhima Salvi and Pushpa Gaikar. The identities of the two others are not known as of now.
Bharatiya Janata Party workers said that more than 10 lakh people attended the event, reported The Indian Express. Nearly 300 people complained of dehydration and exhaustion, they added.
The tents could be accessed only by those present on the stage, members of the media and select others, reported The Hindu.
The maximum temperature in Mumbai was 34.1 degrees Celsius on Sunday, while the coastal observatory at Colaba recorded 32.4 degrees, showed data from the Indian Meteorological Department’s Santacruz observatory. Data at the weather department’s Navi Mumbai observatory was not updated, according to The Indian Express.
On Sunday evening, Shinde said that deaths were very unfortunate and that a compensation of Rs 5 lakh will be given to the families of the dead. He also announced that the cost of treatment of those in the hospital will be borne by the state government.
“Lakhs of people had come for the event and it went well,” Shinde said after visiting those hospitalised. “It is painful to see some of them suffer.”
Fadnavis said that he was praying for the speedy recovery of those hospitalised.
Meanwhile, Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) chief Uddhav Thackeray, his son Aditya Thackeray and Nationalist Congress leader Ajit Pawar visited the hospital where those injured were admitted.
Uddhav Thackeray blamed the Shinde government for the deaths and alleged that the event was not properly planned, reported ANI.
“I interacted with four to five patients,” Thackeray said. “Two of them are in critical condition…Who will investigate this incident?”
Maharashtra Congress spokesperson Atul Londhe Patil also accused the state government of negligence. “For this [the deaths], the government should be charged with culpable homicide not amounting to murder,” he said in a tweet.
Meanwhile, transport company unions in Maharashtra said that a three-day ban on plying of heavy motor vehicles on highways in the days leading to the event resulted in an estimated loss of Rs 100 crore, The Times of India reported.
Several trucks were stuck on the National Highway-66 due to the ban imposed from April 14 to April 16, Bal Malkit Singh, the core committee chairman of the All India Motor Transport Congress, told the newspaper on April 15.
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