Mumbai:
One person was killed and 11 others were injured when a stampede broke out in suburban Kalina in Mumbai during submission of forms for a recruitment drive for police constables.
Over 30,000 aspirants from various parts of Maharashtra had converged at Kalina police hostel, one of the centres for submission of recruitment forms, since Sunday. As the gate opened at 6 am on Monday, the candidates surged forward and broke the queue to submit the forms.
In the melee, they pushed policemen on duty and jumped over the barricades, resulting in stampede.
The candidates alleged that proper arrangements were not made at the centre to maintain the queue.
Joint Police Commissioner (law and order) Himanshu Roy said he was conducting an inquiry into the stampede.
Meanwhile, Maharashtra Home Minister R R Patil, who met the injured at the hospital, said the government might consider paying compensation to the deceased and injured. He also said police would be asked to help the injured in filling up the forms and submitting them.
Police sources said the stampede occurred at the gate outside and not inside the police hostel.
Twenty-two-year-old Ramesh Ambre from Ahmednagar was crushed to death. His handicapped father was sobbing at V N Desai hospital saying, "What will I do now? Our entire family was depending on him."
Kiran, who was injured, said a group of applicants was waiting since last night.
"We were in the beginning of the queue when the window opened today. Suddenly, those standing behind started pushing and surged forward to submit forms. Everyone started jumping the queue which created panic and applicants in the front got hurt," 24-year-old Kiran said.
He claimed he lost his original documents in the melee and hoped that police would help him in getting them.
N B Mohite, a constable attached to Vakola police station, said the stampede took place because the candidates were eager to submit their forms quickly. It became difficult to manage the queue as there were 30,000 applicants.
He said Kalina was not the only centre in the city. There were others at Worli, Elphinstone, Marine Lines, Marol, Somaiya College and Naigon. In each of these centres there were about 10,000 applicants in the queue to submit the forms.
According to him, the applicants broke the queue at Kalina because they were in a hurry and had planned to submit the forms at other centres including Navi Mumbai and nearby Thane.
Among other injured were Amol Jadhav, Dilip Rathod, Vicky Jadhav, Vinayak Chavan, Dilip Kharat, Roopesh Choudhary, Prasad Suryavanshi, Nikhil Choudhary and Ganesh Wagh.