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Time of India
21 hours ago
- Politics
- Time of India
Puri Rath Yatra stampede kills 3 as crowd swells to 20k outside temple
Bhubaneswar: A pre-dawn stampede during Rath Yatra festivities in Odisha's temple town Puri left three devotees dead and dozens injured Sunday as over 20,000 people crowded into a space meant for less than a third of that number. The dead were identified as Premakanta Mohanty, 78, a retired state govt employee from Bhubaneswar; homemaker Basanti Sahu, 42, from Khurda; and Prabhati Das, 52, of Balianta in Bhubaneswar. They had come with families for "darshan" of Lord Jagannath, Balabhadra and Subhadra atop chariots before the sibling deities entered Gundicha temple on the third day of the annual festival. The chariots were parked outside the temple, drawing massive crowds that overwhelmed barriers. Eyewitnesses attributed the chaos to poor planning and inadequate crowd control measures. They said the surge began as two trucks carrying wooden ladders for the chariots entered the dense crowd around 4am. "The narrow congregation site, combined with insufficient police presence and scattered palm log ladders near the chariots, resulted in the stampede," eyewitness Chinmay Patra said. CM Mohan Charan Majhi ordered a probe led by development commissioner Anu Garg and announced compensation of Rs 25 lakh for each victim's family. He called the lapses "unforgivable" and transferred Puri district collector S S Swain and SP Vinit Agrawal. DCP-ranked officer V P Pati and commandant Ajay Kumar Padhi were suspended for negligence. Cops, govt under fire for crowd-control 'fiasco' Bhubaneswar: Sunday's stampede at Puri in BJP-governed Odisha spotlighted failure of police's crowd control measures. Opposition BJD and Congress attributed the tragedy to govt's incompetence and "favour" shown to BJP workers to gather around the chariots. While there was a delay on Friday due to a crowd surge, the chariot-pulling ceremony eventually went off smoothly that day and Saturday with over 12 lakh devotees. But alleged mismanagement of a smaller gathering of 5,000-6,000 near Gundicha Temple led to the stampede Sunday. "The location in front of Gundicha Temple can accommodate a maximum of 5,000-6,000 devotees. Stampedes can occur when chariots are moving. However, tragedy struck before stationary chariots, a first in history," said Binayak Dasmohapatra, a senior servitor of Jagannath Temple. Police had announced deployment of 275 AI-enabled cameras and drones for real-time crowd monitoring as part of the security and traffic measures. At least two IPS officers were assigned to oversee 5 companies of RAF, 6 SP-rank officers, 7 ASPs, 24 DSPs, 42 inspectors, 189 SIs/ASIs, 12 havildars, 110 home guards and 52 platoons of state police. Despite this, security experts and devotees criticised police for failing to anticipate the massive weekend crowd. " I suspect the personnel lowered their guard after Friday and Saturday, and did not take any preemptive measure for the remaining days of the festival," said Sahadeb Mohanty, a retired DSP. Leader of opposition and BJD chief Naveen Patnaik posted on X, "While I refrain from accusing govt of criminal negligence, their blatant callousness undeniably contributed to this tragedy." State Congress president Bhakta Charan Das claimed the entire arrangement was "VVIP and BJP worker-centric". Govt pushed back against the allegations, pointing out that action had been taken against negligent officers and more would follow after ongoing inquiries."Senior police officers are on the spot to ensure comprehensive crowd control measures," law minister Prithiviraj Harichandan said. Incident caused by 'abysmal failure' of crowd mgmt: Naveen Prabhati, one of the victims, had travelled in a group of seven. Her mother Binodini Panda said: 'Thousands pushed through, walking over people. Some people lifted me and some others, but my daughter remained trapped. By the time we managed to reach her, she was gone.' According to Basanti's husband Dilip Kumar Sahu, the crowd surged at dawn. 'People started falling, including us. We were trampled. My wife got trapped. We pulled her out and waited for nearly an hour for an ambulance. She was declared dead at the hospital.' Opposition politicians blamed BJP-led govt for security failures. Former CM Naveen Patnaik of BJD called it an 'abysmal failure' of crowd management. Congress MP Rahul Gandhi said 'no lapses in this responsibility are acceptable'. Undeterred, thousands of devotees continued gathering for darshan of the deities through the day. 'We are saddened by the tragedy but not scared. Our faith is stronger than our fear,' said Saudamini Sarangi, 65, from Cuttack. 'There was chaos for about an hour but then normalcy returned quickly. We offered prayers smoothly afterward,' said Sovan Pattnaik of Bhubaneswar. Police deployed reinforcements, set up barricades and implemented multiple queue systems. 'We appealed to people not to spread rumours. Many were taking photos in the crowd, adding to the challenge,' said DGP YB Khurania. The festival continues through July 8.
Time of India
a day ago
- Time of India
3 dead, over 20 injured in stampede outside Gundicha Temple
Bhubaneswar: At a time when most were asleep, a small corner in Puri was awake to the sounds of cymbals and gongs and chants of 'Jai Jagannath'. As nearly 20,000 devotees jostled for space at 4 am for a glimpse of the sibling deities, a stampede broke out, killing three and leaving scores injured. The devotees had gathered for a darshan of the deities atop the chariots outside Gundicha Temple on Sunday, the third day of Rath Yatra. But the chants soon turned into cries of despair as devotees rushed in to have a closer look of the deities, triggering a stampede. Among the dead were Premakanta Mohanty (78), a retired state govt employee from Nayapalli area in Bhubaneswar, as well as Basanti Sahu (42) from Khurda district, and Prabhati Das (52) of Balianta in Bhubaneswar. Both the women were housewives. All three had travelled to Puri with family members to have a glimpse of Lord Jagannath, Lord Balabhadra and Devi Subhadra atop the chariots before they were moved to Gundicha Temple. More than 20,000 devotees had pressed into a space meant for 5,000-6,000, raising serious question mark on the crowd management measures undertaken by the Puri administration. Chief minister Mohan Charan Majhi reacted swiftly. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Beyond Text Generation: An AI Tool That Helps You Write Better Grammarly Install Now Undo Terming the 'negligence' as 'unforgivable', Majhi transferred Puri district collector Siddharth Shankar Swain and SP Vinit Agrawal and suspended DCP-ranked officer Vishnu Prasad Pati and commandant Ajay Kumar Padhi for dereliction of duty. The CM, who had instructed the govt machinery to ensure an 'incident-free' Rath Yatra, also apologised to Jagannath devotees for the incident and ordered a high-level administrative inquiry, led by development commissioner Anu Garg. Majhi also announced compensation of Rs 25 lakh for families of each victim. According to eyewitnesses, the situation worsened when two trucks carrying wooden ladders for the chariots tried to enter the crowded area. "The narrow congregation site, combined with insufficient police presence and scattered palm log ladders near the chariots, resulted in the stampede," Chinmay Patra, an eyewitness, said. A state govt ministerial committee, which was recently formed to oversee Rath Yatra arrangements, visited Puri to assess the situation. The govt deputed Khurda district collector Chanchal Rana and STF DIG Pinak Mishra as Puri's new collector and SP in the middle of Rath Yatra festival, which will conclude on July 8 with Niladri Bije. The opposition BJD and Congress slammed the govt over the incident. Former chief minister Naveen Patnaik criticised the "abysmal failure of crowd management" in an X post, while Congress MP Rahul Gandhi stated that "no lapses in this responsibility are acceptable."
