Tirupati Stampede: Opening Gate for Old Man Set off Chaos

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Opening Gate for Ailing Old Man Set off Stampede: Official

By Raisina Correspondent

New Delhi, January 9: Six people lost their lives while several have been injured in a stampede incident in Tirupati late evening on Wednesday. The temple officials claimed that opening door at a ticket booking site for an ailing old man triggered the stampede.

Six people died in the stampede near Vishnu Nivasam in Tirupati where a strong crowd had swelled for darshan tokens. The crowd had reportedly grown strong at the Tirumala Srivari Vaikuntha Dwar in Tirupati.

The people from all across the country had turned out in strong numbers at the temple city in Andhra Pradesh on Wednesday. Local reports said that several people have been injured in the stampede. They are being treated at Sri Venkateswara Ramnarayan Ruia Government General Hospital in Tirupati.

Reports said that hundreds of devotees had reached Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh for tickets for a religious event. “Suddenly, there was a jostling among the ticket buyers for the religious event at one booking counter. A stampede broke out soon after the door was opened to allow an ailing old man to enter,” said the local reports.

A large number of devotees from all over the country had come to Lord Venkateswara Swamy temple on Tirumala hills. “They had gathered to get tickets for the annual Vaikuntha Dwar Darshanam. The 10-day Vaikuntha Dwara Darshanam (darshan of the deity from the northern entrance of the temple) begins on January 10,” the temple administration officials were quoted having said by the local media.

The Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD), which oversees the temple’s operations, had set up special counters to distribute darshan tokens for the Vaikuntha Ekadasi festival on January 9. Reports said that the tokens were being given at MGM High School in Bairagipatteda, near the Vishnu Nivasam Temple in Tirupati. But the crowd kept swelling up as thousands of gathered at the ticket counter.

The TTD chairman BR Naidu told reporters that “the stampede took place when the gate was opened to help a woman who was feeling unwell, but the crowd suddenly rushed forward, which led to the chaos.”

However, the angry social media users are showing video footage of the incident in which they accused the administration of total mismanagement. The volunteers can be seen raining blows on the devout as they rushed to buy tickets at the counter.

The crowd management is often blamed for stampede and misbehaviour with the devotees at several of the Hindu temples in the country. The temple volunteers are often accused to be lacking in skills and training to manage large crowds.

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The temple officials have been quoted by the local media saying that arrangements had been made to distribute 120,000 tokens to devotees for ‘Sarva Darshan (free darshan)’ of Lord Venkateswara Swamy. PTI in a news update quoted Tirupati District Collector S Venkateswar, saying that he visited Sri Venkateswara Institute of Medical Sciences (SVIMS) Hospital to meet the injured while the conditions are stable. “Almost 24 people got discharged over the last 24 hours while some of the patients have suffered fracture,’ he told the news agency.

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He refuted the allegations of mismanagement, saying that “elaborate arrangements had been made for the crowd with the police personnel deployed at the token counters. “There was a holding area. Unfortunately, there was some miscommunication about the opening of the gate. The gate was initially opened to let one person go as he wasn’t feeling well and then it was closed again,” reported the news agency. There was commotion among people that gates are being opened so then they rushed towards the gate, he added.

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