Temple Tragedy
More than 300 people were killed in a stampede at the Mandhardevi Kalubai hill temple in Wai (Satara district yesterday). The stampede was caused when some devotees slipped and fell near the entrance of the sanctum sanctorum, sending a wave of panic through the other 2 lakh devotees. Apparently, the floor became slippery because of excess oil near the deepmaal and water from the coconut-breaking ceremony. Panic stricken devotees tried to rush down and continued slipping on the surface, people coming up also fell down and were trampled upon. When I read the news yesterday I felt terrible. But a few questions also came to my mind - the hilltop temple attracts 3-4 lakh pilgrims in Dec-Jan (Paush) *every year*, especially on the Purnima Day(as was yesterday). The temple is located on top of a hill with and the only access path is a narrow,steep, unkempt winding road. So many people and a single path is a disaster waiting to happen. Could the local authorities/state govt not taken precautions? I understand this is easier to say in hindsight and managing large crowds is tough, but some basic regulations could have been made atleast to prevent stalls (for the mela) from cropping up on the path and limiting the already confined access to the temple.
Its not as if these stampedes at pilgrimages are a rare phenomenon, they happen all the time aj Haj .. and the last major stampede occured in Maharashtra in 2003 during the Nasik Kumbh Mela where *only 41* people were killed.
Maharashtra Governor SM Krishna expressed his *shock and anguish * and *graciously cancelled* his Republic Day reception at Raj Bhavan. CM Vilasrao Deshmukh announced a *judicial enquiry* into the incident and announced compensation for the victims- *1 lakh to relatives of the dead, 25000 to the seriously injured and 10000 for those with minor injuries *
Is a judicial enquiry going to help anything .. even if they find out how the stampede was caused (theres plenty of speculation on that already), will it prevent future stampedes( considering that we haven't learnt from past stampedes)? As for the compensation.. who knows when people will get it , if at all they do. After all victims of the Bhopal tragedy are still waiting after 20 years..
This news made the headlines yesterday.. but today most news papers preferred to focus on the Republic Day celebrations where the "country showcased her military might". On one hand we have sophisticated weapons and fighters and on the other hand we have 300 plus poor devotees who were killed for no fault of theirs. Their moment of glory in the headlines is over, as more sensational news items prepare to replace them.Probably signifies that life is really cheap in our country, where 300 lives being lost really makes no difference. I hope not...
posted by mightypen @ 1:25 PM
2 Comments:
What's this, an argument against the separation of church and state? You're getting more red-state by the minute... :-P
Nothing changes. Expect more of this in the future. Govt. doesn't care. Public doesn't care. The 4-5 crores spent on compensation could have been spent on security and widening that goddamn road..
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