- We are like that only! How often do we hear about this exasperated expression whenever avoidable mishaps/tragedies/incidents/accidents happen despite loss of precious lives and breadwinners for want of simple adherence to guidelines and standard operating procedures? Take, for instance, how stampede cases reported from across the country are showing how careless, lackadaisical, and failing to follow basic crowd management guidelines are resulting in avoidable accidents and the accompanying deaths. Expect the usual platitudes, statements expressing grief, forming a committee to investigate the matter, announcements of ex-gratia for the dead/injured, and instructions for the authorities to come out with a foolproof plan. Phew!
PC: The New Indian Express
- Whatever happened to the earlier committee reports, guidelines, and policies recommended to stop the mismanagement of crowds that resulted in loss of lives and livelihoods for several victims/injured/families? Gathering dust at various levels of governance. Another month, another stampede, and the sorrowful occurrences continue. It seems inevitable only because authorities don’t take crowd management seriously. Somebody once defined a stampede as an awful crime committed by a group of people that are more or less blameless. India, sadly, is too often the scene of this crime, as the recent Venkateswara Swamy temple stampede in Andhra Pradesh reminded us last week. Eight women and a boy, barely in his teens, were killed, and 25 others were injured.
PC: Outlook India
- Of course, we grieve for them, but with a feeling of shock and dismay. Shock because around 40 lives were lost in a stampede in TN, in September. And, four in MP, in August. Two in UP, and six in Uttarakhand, in July. Three in Odisha and 11 in Karnataka, in June. The year, in fact, started with a stampede at Tirupati in Andhra, followed by the deadly crush at Kumbh, and another at New Delhi railway station. We must be dismayed because no lessons were learnt, and we dread the next stampede with a sense of inevitability. But stampedes aren’t inevitable. Neitherthe US nor China has had any this year. The last fatal stampede in the US was in 2023, with two dead, and in 2021, before that. So, stampedes are preventable. But it takes some doing.
PC: The Hindu
- For the uninitiated, there’s a Bureau of Police Research and Development document on crowd control and mass gathering management, but when police take the plea that they weren’t informed about the gathering, as in last week’s tragedy, the preventive intent is missing. If 20,000 pilgrims knew about the event, how were the police ignorant? Official inquiries also seem guided by the principle of let bygones be. So, the Delhi station stampede happened, we’re told, because somebody dropped a heavy bag! In China, too, stampedes occurred with sickening frequency until 2015, but then it decided to do something about it. India still hasn’t, apparently. Why not? The government, the police, and the organizers should come together to follow the guidelines. Simple.
