Seer advised Naidu on ghat: TD MLA Gorantla Buchaiah Chowdary

 

The MLA said Mr Naidu had intended to take the holy dip and perform rituals at Sara-swati ghat to avoid inc-onvenience to devotees. But officials advised him that the Kanchi seer Jayendra Saraswati had intended to take the holy dip at the Pushkar ghat to inaugurate the fete at the auspicious time of 6.26 am on July 14.

 

The MLA said, “Soon after taking the holy dip and performing rituals, the CM moved out of the ghat. As the CM was scheduled to go to guest house to take breakfast, he noticed surging crowds outside the ghat and the police struggling hard to control them. Sensing trouble, the CM wanted to visit the control room located in front of Pushkar ghat to monitor the situation in person. But security personnel denied permission. Later, the CM arrived at Police Guest House where another control room was set up to monitor the crowd movement at the ghats.”

 

“As I was with the CM in the control room, I noticed a big vehicle parked in front of one of the gates of the Pushkar ghat while a large number of devotees were proceeding towards one of the gates and an equal number of devotees were trying to come out from the same gate.”

 

He said a small posse of police personnel was unable to handle the situation. “By the time I reached Pushar ghat, I found about 11 bodies on the ground. I asked for an ambulance. Though it was there but the key was with its driver who was not available.”

 

Mobile phones were not getting proper signals as I tried to inform Mr Naidu of the situation, he said. “We alerted the police and asked them to stop the devotees entering the ghat from all entry points. It took 1.5 hours to control the surging crowds soon after noticing the deaths,” he said.