Showing posts with label Qutab Minar tragedy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Qutab Minar tragedy. Show all posts

Sunday, December 4, 2011

Judicial probe's findings


Qutab Minar’s slippery and uneven steps were as much to blame for the high death toll as the power failure that plunged the tower into darkness on December 4, 1981. The inquiry committee that examined the causes of the accident criticised both the power utility DESU and the Minar’s custodian ASI in its report.

The probe panel headed by district and sessions judge Jagdish Chandra started work a day after the tragedy and submitted its report a month later, on January 6. The following were its key findings:

1) Power failure inside the tower was one of the major causes of the stampede. The fault was on the part of Delhi Electric Supply Undertaking.

2) The stampede started when a girl slipped somewhere below the Minar’s eighth ventilator.

3) Deaths from suffocation occurred due to the pressure of human bodies lying one above the other.

4) Almost all the steps inside the tower were slippery and uneven, and had dangerous depressions and contours. Poor condition of the steps led to the girl’s slipping below the eighth ventilator. Archaeological Survey of India was to blame for the dangerous condition of the steps.















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