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A day after two devotees "suffocated to death" due to overcrowding, priests at the shrine said that the number of devotees inside the Bankey Bihari temple at a time should be restricted while the VIP enclosure should be removed.
Temple priest Gaurav Goshwami said limited number of devotees should be allowed inside the shrine at a time and a barrier system should put in place outside it to manage crowd.Another priest, Gyanendra Goshwami, said the VIP enclosure should be removed to create more space for devotees inside the temple.
Meanwhile, a former president of the shrine’s management committee said either a new bigger temple should be constructed and the deity be shifted there or the area around the shrine be developed on the lines of the Kashi Vishwanath Corridor in Varanasi.
The suggestions came as two devotees were killed in early hours of Saturday, with District Magistrate Navneet Singh Chahal saying "prima facie, the cause of death is suffocation due to a heavy rush at the ‘mangala aarti’" during the Krishna Janmashtami celebrations.
He said donation boxes kept inside the temple should be shifted to a raised platform outside the shrine, which will make the temple spacious.
Mahesh Pathak, a former president of the Bankey Bihari temple management committee, said the deity should be shifted to a new bigger temple, for which the government should acquire land.
Provisions for priests, garland sellers and parking of vehicles should be made at the new location, he said.
He said the other option is to renovate the temple area on the lines of the Kashi Vishwanath Corridor by shifting nearby shops to other places.
Another former president of the temple management committee, KC Gaur, said the area of the existing temple may be increased by using land behind it.
Gaur said earlier the plan could not materialise as two shopkeepers brought a stay order from the Allahabad High Court.
Seer Uma Shakti Peethadhishwar Ramdeva Nand Maharaj rejected the idea of renovating the temple, saying it would displace one-fourth of Vrindavan.
The seer said four years ago, he had suggested the construction of a majestic temple over 500 acres, with facilities like parking space, shops and space for priests.
Earlier, two devotees were killed and seven injured in a stampede-like situation at the famous Bankey Bihari temple here during Janmashtami celebrations in the early hours of Saturday, officials said.
"Prima facie, the cause of death is suffocation due to a heavy rush during the 'mangala aarti'," District Magistrate Navneet Singh Chahal said.
A 55-year-old woman from Noida, Nirmala Devi, and a 65-year-old devotee from Jabalpur, Ram Prasad, died in the incident, a senior official said.
Chahal said he and Senior Superintendent of Police Abhishek Yadav had checked all arrangements one hour prior to the aarti but a sudden heavy influx of pilgrims and the chaos caused after a devotee fainted at exit gate number one primarily led to the tragedy.
While the unconscious devotee was rescued by police, some stumbled and fell while others stepped over them, the official said.
The situation was brought under control and the injured were rushed to a hospital. "Five of the injured were discharged on Saturday, while two others remain hospitalised," Superintendent of Police, City, Martand Prakash Singh said.