More Than 70 Injured in Goa Temple Fest

The Annual Pilgrimage journey in Goa every year has recently become a serious challenge for the people. The Devotees of Lairai Devi were travelling through the narrow lanes of the temple to reach the shrine, and because of inadequate crowd control, a strange stampede affected close to 70 people, and also killed 6 people. The police have started a probe as there is enough evidence to claim the poor strategy of the police in controlling the crowd.

The incident occurred in the early hours of Saturday, after which the CM of Goa ordered a fresh Magisterial Inquiry on the matter that killed people and also injured many in the process. The evidence from Shirgao Village will be collected a proper search behind the issues will be conducted.

A senior police officer has claimed that some speculations and rumors had led to the chaos and eventually led to a stampede-like situation, which was quite challenging for the officials to control. “Precautions were taken, but there was one bottleneck. The jatra happens every year, but this kind of incident is taking place for the first time. I am not saying this incident was instigated, but even if unknowingly, there was a provocation that led to this incident, they too will be punished.”

Though police have claimed to be actively managing the crowd, the attendees of the journey blamed the crowd control management. One of the attendees, Urvesh Kauthankar, claimed that “It was a tragedy waiting to happen.”.

Kauthankar was among the victims as he had lost his aunt. While talking to the media, he informed that “Police and district administration failed to manage the crowd. After taking a dip in the village pond, the devotees proceeded to a narrow road stretch (about 400 metres long), which has a very steep slope, leading to the temple. Police had put a rope to separate the queues of Dhonds and the public on both sides of the road. But the Dhonds created multiple queues. There was a lot of pushing and shoving. A scuffle broke out between the two Dhond groups and since the incline of that road is steep, people fell over each other and were crushed.”

The CM denied allegations regarding the rope, as people claimed that it brought chaos among the devotees. While dismissing the cases, he claimed that “The jatra is for everybody and everyone has a responsibility to maintain decorum. The rope that they say is responsible was being held by police and wasn’t the cause of the tripping. The Dhonds were supposed to walk within the rope, but some came from the outside and tried to enter the queue.”