PANAJI
Taking cognizance of the temple stampede at Shirgao that killed six, Vice President of India Jagdeep Dhankhar on Thursday said that the district administration must thoughtfully plan for events like religious fairs to avoid any mishap.
During his interaction with All India Services Officers in Goa, Dhankhar also said that the bureaucracy reflects the spirit of accountability and transparency and must avoid ingratiation with political dispensation.
“District administration must thoughtfully plan for events like religious fairs where there are large gathering to avoid any mishap,” Dhankhar said.
The State witnessed its first ever temple stampede incident during Shree Devi Lairai Zatra at Shirgao, in the first week of May that claimed six lives while almost 100 people were injured. The State government appointed fact-finding committee has held district administration and police accountable for the incident which was a result of poor planning, lack of crowd management and failure of law enforcing agencies.
Interacting further, the Vice President said that the bureaucracy reflects the spirit of accountability and transparency and can potentially change people’s mindset in favour of public order, decorum and discipline.
“Ingratiation of bureaucracy with political dispensation is bound to bring about its emasculation and it must be avoided,” he said.
Dhankhar said that in aspirational India, after a decade of impressive growth, people have tasted development. “Bureaucracy has the responsibility of helping citizens leverage available opportunities,” he said.
Earlier during an event at Goa Raj Bhavan, the Vice President stressed that India is a home for alternative medicine and called for evidence based validation of our ancient texts to make them accessible and applicable to contemporary challenges.
Dhankhar underlined the ancient civilizational knowledge and said that the entire West will be stunned if we learn more about our treasure of knowledge…. Charaka, Sushruta, Dhanvantri, Jivaka, renowned Ayurvedic physician.
“We are a nation with a difference….We are rediscovering our roots, and we will get rooted in our roots. I strongly focus on alternative medicine because India is the home of alternative medicine. It is being practiced now very extensively….Let us not confine our ancient texts to libraries,” the Vice President said.
He said that India’s ancient treasure is not meant for the shelf of the library but is meant to be widely disseminated.
“Let us bring timeless ideas to life through research, innovation, and reinterpretation using modern scientific tools. Let us pursue evidence-based validation, digitisation, translations, and cross-disciplinary studies to make these treasures accessible and applicable to contemporary challenges,” Dhankhar said.
The Vice President expressed happiness to the very fact that the World Health Organisation has recognised India’s treasure by establishing a global centre for traditional medicine in Jamnagar, Gujarat. “What a powerful recognition of universal relevance of our systems like Ayurveda,” he commented.
