Mamata to felicitate slum dwellers

KOLKATA: On Friday, chief minister Mamata Banerjee lauded the effort of "the brothers at Panchanantala" for taking prompt steps in initiating rescue operations. But there's more in the offing for the dwellers of the slum adjacent to the AMRI Hospitals in Dhakuria. The chief minister has decided to felicitate them as recognition of their effort. While the modalities will be finalized after the government takes care of the "priorities" first, Mamata has already asked her secretariat to look at available options.
On Saturday, fire services minister Javed Khan also acknowledged the role of the slum dwellers in helping the fire brigade, police and disaster management personnel in saving lives. "They had little equipment in their hands, yet they endangered their lives for others," he said.
Even on Saturday, slum-dwellers whose shanties hem the sprawling AMRI facilities in Dhakuria thronged the premises in hundreds trying to gauge the implication of the disaster and its fallouts. Passion ran high after seeing the milieu of bodies being wheeled out in scores a day before. So were the rumours. "There are children inside, who didn't survive. They are trying to hide something. Why else have the gates been locked?" they shouted. Police explanation that these were being done only to facilitate investigation didn't assuage them, prompting the cops to threaten a lathicharge.
The anger isn't without a reason. Pradip Purkait, a slum-dweller, said, "Had they shown the will, many more lives could have been saved. When we first saw people frantically waving their hands from the third and fourth floors with the first light of day, we ran straight to the hospital gates. It was locked with no sign of any security guard. In fact, we'd spotted a couple of fire tenders also stranded at the gates." Purkait said with none heeding to their screams to let them in, local youths (him included) used bamboos as poles to scale the wall and go inside. "It was some time later that we could see fire brigade entering and the ladders were being put to use," he said. Purkait still can't fathom why someone would keep the gates locked during fire. "There is lot to hide in that building (pointing at the five-storied ravaged complex) and so the effort is more to keep us away," he said.
Binod Das, who was also in the melee, said, "When we entered the complex, we were numbed by smoke and darkness. We tried our best. Later, when we could no more inhale the smoke, some got hold of surgical masks. The rest had to do with wet towels or even bedsheets. Fire burnt our eyes, the legs were weary after the constant running. But we all tried to help as many people as we could. Anyone would have done that. The victims were not even well, some in plasters on the ankles, others too old." But then Binod makes his point, "Where were all the security guards, attendants, hospital staff? We saw none." Raju Singh, too, agrees. Pointing at a middle-aged personnel of a private security agency manning the gates (Meera Security Guards), "Today they are stopping us from entering. Where were they on Friday? They'd all run away," he complained.