A day after tragic stampede in the wee hours of Tuesday at Chamunda Devi temple in Jodhpur caused nearly 150 people to death and over 100 injured; Rajasthan Government has ordered a judicial probe. CM Vasundhara Raje, after visiting the government hospital to meet the victims, announced ex-gratia relief of Rs 2 lakhs to the nearest kin of each of the deceased and Rs 50,000 to each of the injured.
A retired judge of Rajasthan High Court will carry out the investigation and submit its report in three months, official sources reported.
Home Minister for State G C Kataria has dubbed the incident as a massive tragedy and said so far 150 people have been died. The list could add more number as many injured admitted to hospital are in critical condition.
The State on Wednesday observed mourning as a mark of respect to deceased devotees.
Breaking off the barricades in the men’s queue followed by falling down men over men spurred the stampede causing it taking a horrendous tragedy.
Meanwhile, the shrine, which was closed soon after the mishap, was reopened today (Oct 1) for devotees; however, few devotees turned up. A large number of police have been deployed along the 2 km route to the temple to prevent any mishappening.
Though the final death toll is still ambiguous, as the authorities were visiting houses in the nearby areas to get the exact number of casualties; district collector Naresh Gangwar put the figure at 153.
The officials said that casualties occurred in the queue meant for men while that for the women and children remained unaffected.
The tragic incident occurred due to over crowded temple premises on the occasion of the first day of the nine-day long annual Navratra festival.
It was though not clear whether a bomb rumours or competition among the devotees to have a glimpse of the Durga, or the bad security arrangements which caused stampede, the reports say it was a wall which collapsed causing panic among devotees.
Navratra marks the beginning of other festivals including the Pushkar Mela in the state resulting in a large number of tourists during this festive season every year. Knowing it well, the state administration perhaps did not learn from the previous incidents, otherwise such tragedy could have been stopped, or else a better medical facility or disaster management system could lessen the toll.
Chamunda Devi temple tragedy adds to the reminiscence of similar mishap at Mandradevi temple in Maharashtra three years ago in 2005 in which 265 devotees lost their life, and also the stampede at Naina Devi temple in Himachal Pradesh that left at least 146 dead.
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