Overhead wire falls on Goddess Laxmi’s idol, triggers fire
LUCKNOW: The idol immersion procession of Bengali Club was marred by an unfortunate incident in which a high-tension wire fell over it. The subsequent fire burnt Goddess Laxmi’s clothes and charred her face, while her hair was reduced to ashes.
The incident occurred when the immersion procession of the 10 armed Goddess took a left turn to Burlington.
“It is extremely surprising, shocking and disgraceful that even after several reminders to the administration, the power officials failed to ensure that the visarjan procession should pass without any hitch,” said Arun Kumar Banerjee, president of Bengali Club.
Several lives were put at risk as the procession was moving in full swing when the idol caught a massive fire.
However, a local pan shop owner rushed towards the idol with a bucket full of water and helped douse the fire.
“On the day of visarjan, Bengali club had to face the unfortunate incident in which the idol of Goddess Laxmi caught fire due to sheer negligence of the administration. Extremely disappointed with the administration for risking so many lives,” Banerjee said.
General manager, Lucknow Electricity Supply Administration (LESA) Madhukar Varma said, “We have to look at the ground clearance of the point where the statue caught fire. If the ground clearance was according to the norms then there is no fault of LESA. Then it was duty of the organisers to inform the LESA officials before taking out such an important procession. At least they should have seen the wire and informed the LESA substation so that they would have been removed.”