Kolkata: The Chorbagan pandal tragedy that claimed 19 lives has left several families without their sole breadwinners and a 25-year-old Baranagar resident without both his parents.CM Suvendu Adhikari offered to become “guardian” to Pritish Ghosh (25), whose parents, Dilip and Dipali Ghosh, died in the tragedy. After visiting their M K Chatterjee Street home on Wednesday, Adhikari announced Rs 50 lakh compensation from the state govt and Rs 4 lakh from the PM’s Relief Fund.The Sonkar family of Bagmari Lane lost its sole breadwinner, Subham Sonkar, who had gone pandal-hopping with his parents, sister and cousin. Employed at a private company in Sector V, Subham supported his parents, an MBA-student younger brother and a sister who gives private tuition.“We do not want to blame anyone for the tragedy and accept it as our fate,” said cousin Sandip Malik.Sriparna Poddar, 27, of Baidyabati in Hooghly, was another sole breadwinner. Having recently completed her BSc in Nursing, she had joined Tata Medical Center. Her death has left parents Shambhunath and Ranu Poddar financially vulnerable. Adhikari visited Sriparna’s parents and handed them a Rs 25 lakh cheque, promising another Rs 2 lakh from the PM’s Relief Fund. He announced a job at a local health centre for her mother, a former nurse, besides old-age pensions for both parents.“She (Sriparna’s mother) had been a nurse. Engagement in such work will help her to cope with the tragedy to some extent. She will receive an honorarium for her work,” Adhikari said.Mithu Mondal of Kumartuli also died while pandal-hopping with her son, who survived with injuries.In East Burdwan’s Birpur village, under Madhabdihi Police Station, residents mourned Tagar Bej, 37, and her 14-year-old son Sandip Bej. The class 8 student had travelled to Kolkata with his mother, sister, maternal uncle and aunt for pandal-hopping.Compensation has also been sent through the district magistrate to the family of Abhishek Srivastava, 38, and his son Ayansh Kumar Srivastava, 7, from Muzaffarpur, Bihar. They were visiting relatives at PB Ghat Road in Agarpara when the tragedy struck.(With inputs from Mohammad Asif)
