PANAJI
“The handful of policemen there were doing nothing. We were picking the injured, carrying them to cars and taking them to hospitals,” blurted out a group of angry ‘Dhonds’ in the corridor of the Goa Medical
College leading to its casualty ward.
Elsewhere in the same corridor a mix of men and women, relatives of those undergoing treatment some of who are said to be critical and on ventilators, were deep in despondent thoughts unwilling to speak and shocked at the turn of events at the Devi Lairai zatra otherwise a deeply solemn and spectacular event.
“All I want now is for him to recover and go home,” an elderly woman who rushed from Shirgao to Bambolim on learning that her nephew was among the injured and taken to the GMC. He is critical and on a ventilator.
Another set of visitors at the GMC who were at the zatra, were all praise for a young medical student who despite being injured himself was administering CPR to the victims at the site.
They said although there were a handful of policemen at and around the exact spot where the stampede occurred, they did little to help the fallen victims up.
“Devotees and Dhonds were running helter skelter to control the situation and help the injured to cars so as to shift them to medical centres,” they said.
