© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd
Tags:
Journalism of Courage
The two back-to-back stampedes — one on December 28 and the other on the first day of the New Year — at rallies attended by Telugu Desam Party (TDP) chief Chandrababu Naidu has led to a war of words with both the party and the state government accusing each other of organisational mismanagement and poor crowd management.
Naidu has been touring Andhra Pradesh in an attempt to regain ground in the state ahead of the Assembly elections in 2024.
On the evening of December 28, at Kandukur in Nellore district, Naidu watched in horror as several people fell into an under-construction ditch while rushing to greet him. At the end of the day, eight people had died and 12 were injured. Then, on January 1, three persons died and several others were injured at a public meeting that Naidu attended in Guntur, where saris were to be distributed to women from economically backward families.
On Monday, police arrested Vuyyuru Srinivas, a US-based TDP supporter who organised the distribution programme at Guntur, and filed charges relating to culpable homicide not amounting to murder. While 5,000 people attended the Nellore rally that was held in a narrow lane, at Guntur, around 10,000 women turned up at a large playground in Vikasnagar where free saris and ration kits sponsored by Srinivas through his Vuyyuru Foundation were being distributed.
The party says it issued coupons to 30,000 women with a promise that the kits would be delivered to their homes over the next few days even if they do not go to the distribution venue at Vikasnagar. While they expected between 5,000 and 7,000 women to turn up, over 10,000 women, many without coupons, reached the venue. After about 2,200 kits were distributed through 30 queues, chaos struck and organisers suspended distribution.
Guntur police officers said while the sari distribution was to start at 5 pm, women started gathering in large numbers at the venue from 2 pm. Naidu arrived at 6 pm, inaugurated the distribution programme by giving the kits to a few women, and left. “Before leaving the venue, Naidu requested the women to collect the kits in an orderly fashion and not to push each other,’’ said TDP state president K Atchen Naidu.
Atchen Naidu said, “It was all being done in a proper and organised way, but some women got impatient and pushed and shoved, saying they had arrived before the others. Also, there were not enough police personnel for crowd management.’’
Guntur SP K Arif Hafeez, however, said they had provided adequate security. He said 200 police personnel were present at the venue. “We made all the arrangements. We informed the TDP organisers also that the crowd size may increase and that they should manage the kit distribution properly. But, it turned into a free for all. The organisers could not control the distribution of kits properly,’’ he said.
Three days earlier, at Kandukur town in Nellore, over 5,000 people had gathered near the NTR statue where the road is narrow. Police sources said the crowd was much more than what the TDP organisers had anticipated. Vankadari Pitchaiah, 57, of Srirangarajapuram village of Kandukur Mandal, who is the complainant in the case, claimed there was no police presence at the venue.
Nellore SP C Vijaya Rao, however, said at least 50 police personnel were present at the venue.
