16 killed in Haridwar Stampede

Created by : Prof. Vasave Sir

Late. N. K. Arts, Comm. and Sci. Jr. College, Dhadgaon.

Sweta Dutta Haridwar, November 8 Sixteen people, including 14 women, were killed and over 50 injured in a stampede here on Tuesday morning during a religious ceremony that was reportedly attended by nearly two lakh people.

The Akhil Vishwa Gayatri Pariwar, the organizers of the five-day 'Mahayagya' to mark the birth centenary of Acharya Pandit Shriram Sharma, claimed the incident took place when devotees started gate-crashing at one of the exit points.

But SDM Harbir Singh said: "Prima facie it appears that suffocation in the area due to smoke emanating from the yagya fireplaces led to the stampede, but the exact cause of the incident can be confirmed only after an inquiry."Eyewitnesses said the area was overcrowded since 4 am, an hour before the yagya was scheduled to begin.

"There was barely any breathing space," said Saraswati Devi, 65, a survivor who came to attend the ceremony from Danapur, Bihar. "As we were nearing the steps leading to a foot overbridge , people started pushing from behind. After a woman tripped and fell, others started panicking. I too fell down and became unconscious," she added.

Doctors at the base hospital said over 150 people came for treatment. "Since this is a makeshift hospital and can accommodate only 100 patients, some were referred to other city hospitals. However, the number of seriously injured would not be more than five or seven," said a doctor.

District Magistrate Senthil Pandian has ordered a magisterial probe into the incident. Pandian said most of the victims were from Jhansi, Munger and Sultanpur areas of Uttar Pradesh.Following instructions from the district administration, the organizers today announced that the five-day ceremony would be curtailed, and would end on Wednesday.

Uttarakhand Chief Minister B C Khanduri, who visited the mishap site, announced a compensation of Rs 2 lakh for the kin of deceased. An equal amount was announced as compensation by the organisers. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh also sanctioned Rs 1 lakh for the relatives of the victims and Rs 50,000 for those seriously injured.

Another Stampede Development of crowd managers ought to be mandatory A large gathering of pilgrims, a push from behind , a gate crash: many deaths, many more injured. That this logical sequence leads to an inevitable stampede doesn’t evoke wonder. What shocks and provokes anger is the frequency of this sequence completing itself, when nobody- organizers, police, local administration can claim to be blind to context and conditions.

On Tuesday, 16 persons were killed and 50 injured in a stampede in Haridwar, while attending a religious ceremony where an estimated two lakh people had gathered. The five- day “mahayagya” may have been curtailed and a magisterial inquiry ordered, yet connecting the dots of the stampede sequence is a missing link- absent crowd managers.

The police claim that the organizers of the ceremony, reportedly the largest religious gathering after the Kumbh Mela, didn’t involve them. If true, that’s inexcusable negligence. But do the police need permission from event organizers to inspect a public gathering of two lakh people? As the Sabarimala stampede exposed last January, India has done little – except, say, the odd chief ministers’meet where the issue comes up as a consequence of discussing something bigger- to think through and device concrete solutions for handling large crowds.

Ideas have floated, but hardly ever implemented. The twin needs of adequate infrastructure to accommodate pilgrims and the deployment of crowd managers ought to be administrative second nature. All too often they are not.

Therefore, behind every such tragedy, lies a bigger project- police reforms. Police personnel must be trained and sensitised to not only manage large crowds but also distinguish among different types of crowds. A pilgrimage and a protest are always on the verge of crossing over the edge. Pilgrimage and protest, as the largest crowd pullers, need more thought and action.