TIRUPATI: A day after the worst-ever stampede in Tirupati in recent memory, Andhra Pradesh’s government ordered on Thursday a judicial probe to find out the exact reason that led to the tragic deaths of six devotees and injuries to about 40 others, and to suggest measures to prevent the recurrence of similar incidents.
Government also cracked the whip on five senior officials from the police department and the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams, which controls the Lord Venkateswara temple atop the Tirumala hills, for negligence and dereliction of duty. While two officers were suspended, three were transferred out. CM Chandrababu Naidu visited the temple town.
Chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu, who visited the temple town for a first-hand assessment of the tragedy on the eve of Vaikunta Ekadasi, announced ex gratia of Rs 25 lakh each to the kin of the deceased. Each of the injured will get Rs 2 lakh as compensation. The CM pulled up TTD officials and police officers over lack of planning and crowd management. The CM also interacted with the injured and consoled the relatives of the deceased devotees.
Opening of gate to let out old woman led to tragedy?
AP CM Chandrababu Naidu visited the temple town for a first-hand assessment of the tragedy on the eve of Vaikunta Ekadasi, announced ex gratia of Rs 25 lakh each to the kin of the deceased. Each of the injured will get Rs 2 lakh as compensation. The CM pulled up TTD officials and police officers over lack of planning and crowd management.
Preliminary investigation indicated that a senior police officer opened the main gate of the park, where the makeshift queue lines were set up, to allow an old woman devotee to move out after she complained of ill health. The ill-planned opening of the gate led to a sudden surge of devotees, who had been waiting for over 12 hours by then, towards the gate, leading to the stampede.
Officials clarified on Thursday that the stampede was not a result of the opening of the gate to issue tokens before the scheduled hour. TTD had earlier announced that it would issue tokens for free darshan from 5 am on Thursday. In anticipation, thousands of devotees had stood in long queues from 8 am on Wednesday, 21 hours before the scheduled opening of the token issuing counters. However, following the stampede at around 8.03 pm on Wednesday, officials began issuing tokens at around 11 pm. It continued till 10 am on Thursday when the general darshan quota of 1.2 lakh tokens was completed.
The state govt suspended DSP Ramana Kumar and TTD dairy farm director Haranadh Reddy for dereliction of duty. Naidu, who reviewed the situation with senior TTD officials, acknowledged the failure of Tirupati SP L Subba Rayudu, TTD chief vigilance and security officer S Sreedhar, and joint executive officer Gouthami, and ordered their immediate transfer.
