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Journalism of Courage
It seems the Himachal Pradesh administration did not learn any lesson from the tragedy that had occurred at Naina Devi temple in 1983, leaving 53 persons dead.
Since then, the deputy commissioner and SP of Bilaspur district have been holding meetings with Punjab officials for effective coordination and a joint response to situations like earthquake, terrorist attacks, landslides and stampedes. They have also been discussing movement of traffic, readiness of hospitals and medical teams, police deployment and surveillance, including intelligence sharing. This had become a routine exercise.
But this time, no such meeting was held. Its consequences were evident when tragedy struck again on Sunday, killing 147 persons, of whom most were women and children.
Available evidence suggests the tragedy was avoidable. Had the Bilaspur district administration and local police had planned in advance to deal with emergencies, many lives could have been saved. But there was a complete lack of coordination between different agencies, a near absence of top district officials from the scene, unregulated traffic and ill-equipped police personnel which made things worse.
Sources said the policemen deployed on way to Naina Devi shrine had themselves taken shelter from the rain as most of them were neither carrying umbrellas nor raincoats. While on paper more than 60 cops were deployed between sectors 4 and 5, where the tragedy happened, only a few of them were actually seen.
Then there were instructions that not more than 200 pilgrims should assemble at a single point on the 1.5-km track, but between 1,000 and 1,500 pilgrims were at the spot of the tragedy. Over 50,000-80,000 people visited the shrine on Sunday.
After the rumour about the landslide spread, no one bothered to use the public address system to allay people8217;s fears. The temple authorities, too, remained mute spectators.
Meanwhile, at a top-level meeting on Monday, Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal expressed his displeasure over the reported negligence of the local police and district officials. 8220;Some heads may roll,8221; hinted a top official.
The Government finalised terms of reference of a probe into the stampede. Mandi Divisional Commissioner Ashwani Kapoor has been appointed inquiry officer and given 15 days to submit his report.
