6 die in Vijayawada temple stampede

TNN / Jan 4, 2008, 01:10 IST

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Pilgrims were waiting in queue since Wednesday night; temple officials, cops blame each other.

VIJAYAWADA: Six people were killed and 20 injured in a stampede on the ghat road leading to the Kanakadurgamma temple atop the Indrakeeladri in the early hours of Thursday. The incident happened around 4.30 am when devotees waiting in queue since Wednesday night jostled for space and tried to move ahead.
Despite the six deaths, till Thursday afternoon temple executive officer Krishna Mohan maintained that none had died.The state government has ordered a high-level probe and the temple trust board chairman, M Narayana Reddy, has resigned. Government has announced an ex gratia of Rs 1 lakh each for the kin of those killed and Rs 10,000 for the injured.
Sources said women and children bore the brunt, leading to the instant death of five women and a child. One woman died on her way to hospital. About 1.5 lakh devotees had arrived at the Durga ghat abutting the Indrakeeladri on the last day of 'Bhavani deeksha' ceremony.
"We have been waiting in the queue since Wednesday but there was hardly any help from the authorities. One woman was trampled to death right in front of my eyes," wailed an injured Sarojamma.

The blame game began soon after the incident. A former temple official, on condition of anonymity, said: "This has exposed the lack of seriousness on the part of officials in dealing with pilgrim rush."
Sources said police assigned to man the queues were not present at the time of the stampede. While Narayana Reddy blamed police, city police commissioner C V Anand held the temple authorities responsible, saying they had ignored warnings about heavy rush. Endowment minister J Ratnakar Rao also blamed temple authorities. The temple receives 1.5 to 2 lakh pilgrims during festivals and nearly 25,000 to 40,000 on normal days.

The victims were identified as M Rambabu (8) of Nukalammaveedi in Eluru, K Chenchu Bai (25) of BG Thanda in Kurnool, Chavvada Lakshmi (22) of Kothapet in Vijayawada, K Suneetha (38) of Kandipalem near Kakinada, and Ramulamma (55) and J Eswaramma (46) of Visakhapatnam. The CM was briefed about the incident by collector Navin Mittal. The collector also ordered an inquiry by the joint collector. Local MP Lagadapati Rajagopal and MLA Devineni Nehru visited the GGH.
In a similar stampede in 2004, five devotees were killed on the first day of Krishna Pushkarams near the Prakasam barrage when went to bath. The state government had then shifted collector Prabhakara Reddy and police commissioner T Krishna Prasad, and suspended irrigation SE ISN Raju.

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