The state can’t afford another temple tragedy

The tragedy, now a matter of a high-level probe, was triggered by an “avoidable” stampede. This has alarmed the state Government perhaps more than the devotees who still throng the famous Hindu shrine, almost unruffled by the human loss. Moreover, the state’s Home Department has already send SOS to all SPs asking them to hike security at temples and other crowded public places in the wake of the serial bomb blasts that shook Karnataka and Gujarat recently.

Himachal Pradesh thrives on tourism, of which the pilgrimage component is crucial. Needless to say the state can ill-afford such accidents. In the past three years, more than 600 pilgrims have died, mainly due to negligence of drivers, who proved to be incompetent in navigating the treacherous mountain roads.

A similar stampede had occurred in 1983, when an electricity failure at the temple claimed 53 lives. “The Government learnt a lesson after that and initiated several steps for the safety of the pilgrims. The deployment of police, special barricades to control the crowd, separate exit routes, use of public address system during melas and few other regulations were introduced,” says former chief minister Virbhadra Singh. But all this seems to have been overlooked this time, he alleges, demanding a judicial probe into the incident.

“After the tragedy, Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal held a meeting with top civil and police officials and worked on a plan to plug some of the loopholes in the administration of the temples and crowd management. We are adopting the Vaishno Devi Shrine model. In fact, the model is already in place at the Chintpurni temple. In this model, all pilgrims are registered at the base camp and allotted registration numbers. No pilgrim can enter the shrine without this number. Soon, other temples will also follow this model,” says B K Aggarwal, Secretary to the Chief Minister and Language, Arts & Culture.

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