Hyderabad: Anything that can go wrong will go wrong. So goes the famous Murphy law. Everything went wrong done in Pushkar ghat-1 in Rajahmundry when a stampede at the site Pushkaram ritual bath, on Tuesday morning, killing at least 27 people dead at last count, and three times that number injured. This should be a strong indictment of management skills self-proclaimed Andhra Pradesh chief minister Chandrababu Naidu.
The grandiose arrangements – spectacular laser show and extravagant advertising blitzkrieg – are gone for a jog with the stampede in the very front entrance, the threshold for the holy dip in the first day of the Godavari Pushakaram. The basics of handling large crowds found missing when devotees suddenly sprang to a climbing wall and gain entry into the Pushkar ghat for bathing. All hell broke lose resulting in a stampede.
Meeting Andhra Pradesh CM N Chandrababu Naidu with the victims of the stampede Puskharam Maha Mela in the Government General Hospital in Rajahmundry on Tuesday. PTI meeting Andhra Pradesh CM N Chandrababu Naidu with the victims of the stampede Puskharam Maha Mela in the Government General Hospital in Rajahmundry on Tuesday. PTI
The prime minister can not be directly responsible for the disaster, but has been personally overseeing the arrangements for the ‘Maha Pushkarams’, as claimed by a section of the press.
The states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana embarked on a massive groundwork for pushakarams Godavari, which occur once every 12 years for 12 days. The AP government, which usually has its proverbial chicks even before they are hatched, went around town gloating over his “competence” and “capacity” regardless of the risks involved in the execution of the test 12 day where a lot of things can go wrong.
The main reason, as it appears on the face of it, the disaster is that more tickets, but only exit routes for devotees to take a bath and go. In a way, it’s kind of mousetrap.
This has led to a corner Naidu this time is a series of reports suggesting that the Minister of Endowments P Rao Manikyala Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was not being consulted in the Pushkaram works helmsmen in government. Rao is one of the two cabinet ministers who are part of the government of the National Democratic Alliance led by Naidu. Former Minister Kanna Lakshminarayana (now BJP) alleged that Naidu was “deliberately ignoring” Manikyala Rao.
Autoclave these observations, high TDP legislator Rajahmundry, Gorantla Butchaiah Chowdary said no one was being consulted on the Pushkaram works as the Prime Minister himself personally supervised the arrangements. This strategy proved counter overzealous costly Tuesday when the incident caused a blanket of darkness over the holidays in Rajahmundry. This policy statement in defense, rather than avoid any embarrassment, indirectly fixed the responsibility of the head of government.
The deployment of more than 845 special trains, creating more than 262 ghats Pushkar, and all other details are just mere statistics. Competition would have applauded the government had managed the show without any inconvenience to people.
