50 people died in stampede in past one decade, but no remedial action
Kakinada:Nearly 50 persons lost their lives during the past 12 years in several stampede events on festive occasions, including the six devotees killed in the Tirupati incident, records show.
More surprisingly, successive governments so far took no serious note, and there were no remedial actions or preventive steps.
With the authorities adopting a casual approach when huge crowds are gathered, innocent people are losing their lives. The meetings of prime minister, chief minister etc are however well-guarded with maximum police cover.
Yet, during the first day of the Godavari Pushkaralu on July 15, 2015, as many as 30 persons died. This was when chief minister Chandrababu Naidu took a holy dip in Pushkar Ghat, after leaving the VIP Ghat. In the Pushkar Ghat, thousands of people waited to take a bath. Meanwhile there was a huge stampede and fatalities.
The government appointed the Justice Somayajulu Commission to probe the incident. But, the commission messed up the probe and avoided fixing the blame on any government official including the district collector and the police authorities.
The commission simply said that the spiritual speakers and almanac writers misguided the devotees vis-Ã -vis the timing of the holy dip. After this report, the government closed the issue in a huff.
Prior to this incident, in 2012, three persons died at Srisailam. They were in the queue line for darshan of the Lord, experienced suffocation and dehydration and died.
In December 2022, during the YSRC rule, the opposition Telugu Desam launched a campaign, the ''Idemi Kharma''. Chandababu Naidu as TD chief attended the meeting at Kandukuru in Prakasam district. There was a stampede and eight persons died. The party announced ex-gratia to the families of the deceased, but no action was taken against the errant persons.
On January 2, 2023, Telugu Desam held a Saree distribution programme in Gunturu. Four persons including some women experienced suffocation and fell into a drainage line and died.
The Vykunta Ekadasi Maha Festival is celebrated across the two Telugu states and all Vyshnava temples are making the arrangments. In Tirupati, huge crowds of devotees are coming to Tirumala to take the holy ''Uttara Dwara Darshan''. Though the officials know there will be huge crowd formation, they took things easy. On January 8 this year, six devotees lost their lives at the ticket counters following a stampede.
Retired ASP, G Visweswara Rao, said crowd management is the job of the police; and law and order should be the concern of the district magistrate or divisional magistrate. A strong plan should have been drawn by the cops to avoid such stampedes, he felt.
