Mentioned a lady purportedly died of ‘suffocation’, but no record available
PANAJI
The report of the fact-finding committee led by Revenue Secretary, Sandip Jacques, cites the situation of a near-miss and a stampede-like scenario at the Devi Lairai Zatra in Shirgao last year and even makes mention that a lady had purportedly died of ‘suffocation’ then.
The report however mentions that the fact-finding committee did not find any record of it (lady’s death) which reportedly occurred last year.
“And in another case last year, a woman allegedly died due to suffocation on the sloped section of the pathway. However, the committee did not find any record to substantiate such an incident,” the report mentions, even as it concludes that the tragedy which left six dead and several injured in the wee hours of May 3 was “entirely preventable”.
The report also flags procedural failures by multiple authorities – the organisers (the temple committee), district administration and police besides the local panchayat.
“This critical incident was precipitated by a chain of preventable failures arising from inadequate crowd risk assessment, absence of unidirectional circulation planning, non-implementation of safety directives, ambiguity in sectoral responsibilities, failure to utilise surveillance tools, unregulated roadside vending and the lack of pre-emptive crowd behaviour management,” the report added.
Referring to the epicentre of the stampede, the committee’s report said that the crowd was permitted to enter the sloping pathway from ‘Tali’ (pond) which proceeded in a two-by-two formation at the end of the path’s sloping gradient leading towards Homkhand (where ritual fire is lit) which eventually resulted in a build-up of crowds.
This overcrowding coupled by some groups of Dhonds pushing through in unruly fashion caused instability as a consequence of which a lady fell face-first triggering a chain reaction and several people behind and around her lost their balance and fell over one another.
“People approaching from behind were unaware of the fall ahead and continued moving forward, leading to the stampede,” the report said, adding that it could likely have been averted with proper planning, risk assessment and implementation of effective crowd management strategies.
