Kamothe, Panvel: Nilesh Phatak had no inkling what awaited him and his uncle Kailash Dabhade when they set out for Kharghar, Navi Mumbai from Lonavala to attend the Maharashtra Bhushan award ceremony Sunday.
Dabhade had a heatstroke and, in turn, suffered a heart attack. The 45-year-old man is currently admitted to a critical care unit in MGM hospital.
“We had come for Appasaheb. We were not interested in speeches of other politicians. By the time the programme got over, it got too hot. And many people collapsed due to it,” he told ThePrint. “My uncle has blockages and is under critical care. We didn’t know about his heart condition. It is now that the doctors are telling us this.”
Lakhs of people sat under a scorching sun at international corporate ground for over five hours beginning from 8 am as they attended the programme in which Union Home Minister Amit Shah presented the award to social activist Appasaheb Dharmadhikari.
Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and his deputy Devendra Fadnavis were also present at the event that had Union minister Kapil Patil in attendance. TV visuals and photos showed that the ceremony was held at an open ground, where the teeming crowds had no roof over their heads.
“Many people collapsed after the event in front of me. There was no proper announcement of how to exit. There were several gates, but many people tried to get out of one gate. A stampede-like situation arose because of it,” Phatak said.
At least 12 people died of heatstroke while many more are under treatment at various hospitals in and around Panvel — MGM hospital, Kamothe; Tata hospital, Kharghar; DY Patil Hospital, Nerul; Panvel district hospital; and NMMC hospital, Vashi.
“Eleven patients were brought dead and two more died today,” Vitthal Dake, additional municipal commissioner, Panvel Municipal Corporation, told ThePrint. “Others are getting treated at various hospitals.”
Officials, meanwhile, are not revealing the exact figures of the people injured Sunday.
Most of the victims are above the age of 50 years, according to the list giving details of the people who lost their lives, and accessed by ThePrint.
Doctor treating the patients said that the deaths due to heat and exhaustion could be also because of comorbidities.
ThePrint contacted cultural minister Sudhir Mungantiwar via phone calls, but he didn’t respond. This report will be updated when a response is received.
The Shinde government had to fend off criticism from opponents on how the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) and the Shiv Sena’s attempts to gain political mileage had caused the disaster.
On Sunday midnight, former chief minister Uddhav Thackeray along with Aaditya Thackeray, Leader of Opposition Ajit Pawar visited patients at the MGM hospital.
Leader of Opposition at the Legislative Council and Thackeray loyalist Ambadas Danve also visited the hospitals on Monday.
“Those from the cultural department are responsible for the arrangements. A case of culpable homicide should be registered. Many people are trying to hide the exact figures and hence the government should come on record about the details,” Danve told the media outside the MGM hospital.
Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray questioned the timing of the event and also met some of those admitted to hospitals Monday.
“Because of summer, such a programme could have been done indoors or at Raj Bhavan, which normally is the norm. But it looks like there is a political reason for holding such a massive event,” the MNS chief said.
Sanjay Raut, Rajya Sabha MP from Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray), squarely blamed the Maharashtra government for the deaths. “The award function could have been held in the evening, but Union Minister Amit Shah was not free. So, it was held during the day, exposing people to scorching heat. Politics behind the award took precedence over the convenience of people,” Raut said.
Appasaheb Dharmadhikari, meanwhile, issued a statement saying the incident was “unfortunate,” but “should not be politicised in any way.”
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Limited arrangements?
For the event, officials said that they made arrangements for hosting 18-20 lakh people while around 7-8 lakh approximately came to the event.
According to the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) press note, Shinde had twice visited the ground to take stock of the preparations for the event. There were arrangements such as 250 water tankers, 69 ambulances, 350 doctors, 100 nurses, 26 ambulances, and many more toilets, according to the CMO.
The patients that ThePrint spoke to agreed that the arrangements were in place but the heat and scorching sun around 1pm piled on their misery.
“Water was there, but it was at a distance. By the time we went there to get it, we would be dehydrated. After the event got over, we took whoever we could towards our buses which were parked far away from the event,” Phatak recalled.
Dynaneshwar Patil, 45, who was admitted to the MGM hospital, told ThePrint that he along with his wife and 3-year-old daughter left their house in Sandhurst Road, Mumbai around 4:30 a.m. and reached the venue around 6 a.m.
The family of three was present until the event got over at around 1-1:30 a.m. “I suffered a heatstroke and I collapsed. But because I fell on my wife, her shoulder got injured as she was also carrying our daughter,” Patil said.
Patil’s wife said he had only eaten fruits before leaving for the ceremony.
Another patient Parvati Patil, too, had a similar experience. At the MGM hospital, her sister-in-law Vidya was sitting on the benches outside the ward where Parvati, 55, was kept.
Vidya said they came from Virar and were with 60 other people from their vicinity.
“The arrangements were fine. But after the programme, my sister-in-law fainted because of heat and exhaustion. Our ‘sanstha’ (organisation) people got her admitted to the hospital. Doctor told us she will be discharged soon,” Vidya told ThePrint.
Narendra Gaikwad, 45, from Murbad was admitted with a sprained leg at the MGM hospital. Gaikwad recalled that he lost his footing and fell down while scurrying to leave the venue, as a big crowd made a beeline for the exit doors.
Words turned prophetic
At the function Sunday, Shinde praised the crowds for attending the event despite the odds.
“The sun is spitting fire from the sky but even then not even a single Shree Sadasya (followers of Maharashtra Bhushan awardee Appasaheb Dharmadhikari) is not leaving his or her place…,” the Maharashtra chief minister said.
Through Saturday and Sunday, the CM and his deputy shared photographs and videos of preparations for the Maharashtra Bhushan award ceremony, showing how their government flexed its muscle in organising a programme, usually held in the confines of an auditorium, on an unusually grand scale.
There were videos of a massive stage being constructed in an open ground, unending rows of chairs being arranged and a sea of people having gathered for the function.
Dattatreya Narayan Dharmadhikar, popularly known as Appasaheb, and his family have a massive following across the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR). Appasaheb runs Nanasaheb Dharmadhikari Pratishthan, which as per its website, works towards “social awakening” working on the themes of plantation, water, health, cleanliness, education and business.
The former Congress-Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) government had awarded Appasaheb’s father, Nanasaheb Dharmadhikari, the Maharashtra Bhushan in 2008.
“Bestowing the state’s highest civilian honour to Dharmadhikari in the presence of a crowd of his followers and with Union Home Minister Amit Shah as the chief guest would have definitely earned BJP and Shiv Sena political mileage ahead of civic body elections expected in multiple MMR towns,” political commentator Hemant Desai said.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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