Tirupati Stampede / Stampede at Vishnu Nivasam in Tirupati, 4 dead, crowd had gathered for tokens

Tirupati Stampede: Four devotees died while many were injured in a stampede during Vaikuntha Dwar Sarvadarshanam at the famous Tirupati temple in Andhra Pradesh. The incident happened when tokens were being issued for Vaikuntha Dwar Darshan. A large number of devotees had reached Tirumala on Wednesday evening, due to which the arrangements collapsed and a stampede occurred.

Details of the incident

The process of issuing Vaikuntha Darshan tokens was started by Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD) of Tirupati from the morning of 9 December. From Wednesday evening itself, a huge crowd of devotees gathered at centers like Alipiri, Srinivasam, Satyanarayanapuram and Padmavatipuram to get tokens. However, the number of devotees exceeded the estimate, causing chaos.

Four people, including a devotee from Salem in Tamil Nadu, died in the stampede. Apart from this, four other devotees were seriously injured, who have been admitted to the hospital.

Plan to issue 1.20 lakh tokens

TTD had planned to issue 1.20 lakh tokens for Vaikuntha Dwar Darshan. 94 counters were set up for this. But, the crowd that gathered for tokens from Wednesday evening itself disrupted the arrangements. Devotees were standing in queue since Wednesday evening for the darshan starting from Thursday morning, which worsened the situation.

Chief Minister expressed grief

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu has expressed deep condolences over this accident. He has instructed the officials to immediately provide better medical facilities to the injured and speed up the relief and rescue operations. The CM spoke to senior officials over the phone and took complete information about the incident and assured to increase security for the devotees.

Questions on TTD

After this accident, questions have started being raised on the arrangements of Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam. Experts believe that special security arrangements should have been made during such crowds. In view of the increasing number of devotees, effective steps need to be taken to prevent such incidents in future.

Conclusion

The Tirupati temple, known for its spirituality and grandeur, has been hurt by this unfortunate incident. It is time to take necessary steps for the safety of devotees and crowd management. The government and TTD have to jointly pay attention to this so that such incidents are not repeated in the future.