HVK Archives: One-way flow of devotees averted mishap at Haridwar
One-way flow of devotees averted mishap at Haridwar - The Observer
Lalit K Jha
()
April 16, 1998
Title: One-way flow of devotees averted mishap at Haridwar
Author: Lalit K Jha
Publication: The Observer
Date: April 16, 1998
Authorities are heaving a sigh of relief that probably the
largest religious congregation in human history concluded here
without any mishap.
The sheer magnitude of ten million people, who took part in the
12-yearly ritual ablutions in; the Ganga river on April 13 and
14, presented an awesome logistical challenge, but authorities
carried out what one official said was "a flawless execution".
Managing the congregation at the, Kumbh Mela, the 12-yearly
congregation of Hindus, that began in January, involved computer
monitoring of a vast network of 25,000 policemen, a special riot
control squad, close circuit television, pagers and cellular
phones.
The official machinery was assisted by scores of religious and
other non-governmental organisations to oversee the fair. Monday
and Tuesday were the main days when the largest number of people
took a sacred dip in the river, they believe that washes away
worldly sins.
The smooth conduct of the fair was particularly impressive
because there have been major incidents of stampedes and other
crowd related problems in the past.
During the fair in 1986, some 50 people had died in a stampede.
The authorities were particularly vigilant in the aftermath of a
stampede in Meena in Saudi Arabia last week, where 118 Haj
pilgrims died. The fair officials claimed to have evolved a
"scientific approach to crowd management=94.
Mela officer J P Sharma said: "The whole concept works on the
fact that there should be a systematic one-way flow of the crowd.
Devotees should not be held up or made to wait at a particular
point for too long. Nowhere did we allow two-way flow and we gave
special instructions that the people should not be made to wait
for too long," he added.
For better crowd management the whole fair area of 130 square km
was divided into 31 sectors. Each sector was under the charge of
a senior administration official having a separate police station
and medical dispensary Rapid Action Force, specially trained to
tackle riot-like situations, was deployed at strategic locations
and even accompanied devotees.
Their presence was explained by simmering between two sects of
sadhus' or renunciates ahead of the main bathing days.
As many as 70 high-rise towers were erected to keep a close watch
on the crowd.
Bavesh Kumar Singh, police officer in charge of the mela was
stationed at one such tower near Har Ki Pauri, the main bathing
'ghat'.
Teams for bomb disposal, anti sabatoge teams, Sniffer dogs, horse-
riders were also deployed by the administration.
This time, "to offer maximum space for the devotees at Har-Ki-
Pauri, a 3.5 km platform was constructed and extended so that a
large number of people could simultaneously bath there," Sharma
said.
A large number of other ghats and bridges were constructed around
the place.
he whole emphasis is towards one-way flow of devotees." he
said.
The mela officials also cancelled special provisions for VIPs.
"The VIPs generally block crowd movement and once they go away
there is a rush towards the bathing ghats, "which was chiefly
responsible for stampedes here last time," police officer
incharge said quoting a Judicial commission report.
A large part of the town was closed for vehicular traffic which
caused inconvenience for the devotees.
"Generally the devotees had to walk for about four Km from the
bus stand to the camp area near the main bathing gaths," conceded
a senior fair official.
"But these small inconvenience helped the administration to
prevent unfortunate eventualities," he said soon after the
peaceful conclusion of rituals on the main bathing day, April 14.
However, Sharma said, credit for the peaceful completion of the
main bathing day goes to the pilgrims.
"No amount of police deployment or administrative arrangement can
be successful without the cooperation of the people and this time
the masses behaved in a disciplined manner," Sharma said.
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