Focus on halting of Lord Kallazhagar at every mandagapadi before his entry into Vaigai
Madurai City Police, in association with the district administration, have almost completed the ground work for the grand entry of Lord Kallazhagar into Vaigai river on Monday morning.
Right from getting the dug-up road levelled and scaffolding of underconstruction bridges covered and putting barricades on roads and at the riverbed with lighting facilities, the works are almost complete.
As part of crime prevention, the police have installed CCTV cameras with AI facility and planned to give safety pins to women for fastening their gold ornaments. They have also prepared tags for children with their names and contact details of parents for easy identification in crowd. Flex boards of QR codes to reach out to the police during emergencies have been put up at vantage points.
The focus of the police has now turned towards crowd management on Lord Kallazhagar reaching Prasanna Venkatachalapthy Temple at Tallakulam on Sunday night till the early morning of Monday when He enters the Vaigai.
'The stretch of Alagarkoil Road between Tallakulam temple and the river would easily witness at least 70,000 people. Though they would have had the darshan of Lord Kallazhagar during Ethir Sevai, most of the devotees show keen interest in having another glimpse of the deity mounted on the golden horse palanquin,' said a senior police officer.
With the bitter experience of a stampede-like situation claiming four lives at Goripalayam during the 2022 Chithrai festival, the City Police are doubly alert to ensure smooth procession this year.
'The inordinate delay in taking Lord Kallazhagar out of Tallakulam temple led to skipping of most of the 50-odd mandagapadies between Tallakulam and the Vaigai river,' another police officer recalled.
The sea of devotees was waiting to have a darshan of the deity leisurely as the procession would stop for at around five minutes at each mandagapadi. However, they were caught unawares with the unannounced skipping of halts at most of the mandagapadies.
'This resulted in the entire crowd from near Tamukkam ground to rush behind the deity towards Goripalayam junction leading to an avoidable commotion,' he added. The already tired policemen could not control the frenzied crowd.
'This time, we have planned to keep up with the timings so that there was adequate time for the procession to halt at every mandagapadi. We are working closely with HR&CE officials as it would take at least four hours for the procession to cross this stretch,' he added.
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