Tirupati Stampede: The death toll in the stampede in Andhra Pradesh's Tirupati rose to six on Thursday, while dozens others were injured. The incident occurred when devotees were rushing to get tokens for the 10-day special darshan of Lord Venkateswara on the occasion of the Vaikunta Ekadasi festival. A huge queue of devotees was formed at each centre to get tickets, but a scuffle broke out at Vishnu Niwasam as devotees exceeded the limit.
Videos of police personnel administering CPR on a couple of woman devotees and injured persons being shifted in ambulances surfaced online.
What Led To The Stampede?
The Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD), which manages the affairs at the temple, had arranged for special counters to issue tokens for the darshan of Lord Venkateswara on the occasion of the Vaikunta Ekadasi festival on January 9. The tokens for the darshan were being distributed at the MGM High School at Bairagipatteda in Tirupati. Thousands of devotees started gathering at the counters on Wednesday morning, and there was jostling and pushing by evening.
Tirumala Tirupathi Devasthanam Chairman BR Naidu said the stampede was triggered when the gate was opened to let out a woman who was feeling uneasy, but the gathered devotees pushed in all at once. The chairman said there is some suspicion that it happened due to the temple administration.
The incident happened when Chief Minister Naidu N Chandrababu Naidu was seeing off Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Visakhapatnam after his brief visit to launch projects worth over Rs 2 lakh crore. The Chief Minister is scheduled to visit Tirumala on Thursday.
Mourning the loss of lives, the chief minister said, "A few devotees dying in a stampede near Vishnu Nivasam in Tirupati while trying for Vaikuna Dwara Darsanam has grieved me intensely."
Meanwhile, the TTD board chairman held a meeting to take measures to control the crowd and ensure evacuation and treatment of those injured in the stampede. The Andhra Pradesh government has ordered an inquiry into the incident.