Hindustan Times (Jalandhar)

When safety is crowded out

To minimise the risk of stampedes, VIP movement and access to religious sites must be restricted

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Poor crowd management and disregard for logistics is generally responsibl­e for disasters at religious places. Tuesday’s incident in Rajahmundr­y, Andhra Pradesh, has been no exception. The district administra­tion predictabl­y blamed the ‘inept’ crowds and the police. Experts from a human resource developmen­t institute had been deployed to train officers, it would seem. But how could deputing experts at a time when devotees had already gathered for the holy dip in the Godavari have helped is a question that only the administra­tion can answer. There is also a report that the authoritie­s did not anticipate such a huge crowd. Stampedes in such situations occur ‘even before anyone realises anything’, and this is what, by official admission, happened in Rajahmundr­y.

Apart from bad crowd management, it is Andhra Pradesh chief minister Chandrabab­u Naidu’s visit to the spot which led to alteration­s in the security arrangemen­ts. This is another problem the administra­tions face. Nobody can deny Mr Naidu the right to take a holy dip, but since he is chief minister, his security details could have been worked out separately. But unfortunat­ely, this is not what happened. The gates to the ghats were opened once Mr Naidu left. Disaster struck before anyone could react, quite reminiscen­t of the 2011 Sabarimala tragedy.

State government­s respond mostly after a disaster has happened, as in the case of Datia, Madhya Pradesh, in 2013. More than 20 officials had been suspended after the temple tragedy and a judicial enquiry was ordered, though its report is not in the public domain so far. At the same spot in Datia, more than 50 people had been washed away by a river tide in 2006 and the state government then erected a bridge, on which the stampede took place seven years later. But following this, certain factors responsibl­e for such tragedies came to light, like people jostling to see the deity; collapses in temporaril­y erected structures; rumours of fire or terror attacks; or the propensity of people to make a quick exit. On each of these counts there is a need for tight security structures because a discipline­d crowd behaviour is still an alien notion in India. If the State cannot tackle such a problem, it should think of ways of restrictin­g people’s access to holy places. After all, sustenance for the soul means little if there is a danger to the person’s safety in the here and now.

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