Andhra govt bars public meetings on roads after eleven people die in stampedes

After Andhra Pradesh witnessed two deadly stampedes over the past week resulting in the deaths of eleven persons, the state government has prohibited public meetings and rallies from being held on roads, including national highways, citing public safety. In a government order issued on Monday, January 2, Principal Secretary (Home) Harish Kumar Gupta asked the respective district administration and police machinery to identify "designated places away from public roads for conduct of public meetings, which do not hamper the flow of traffic, public movement, emergency services, movement of essential commodities, etc."

On New Year’s Day, three women were killed and several others were injured in Guntur district as a large number of people rushed to receive gifts at an event, soon after Telugu Desam Party (TDP) chief Chandrababu Naidu addressed the gathering. Earlier on December 28, eight people died in a stampede at a TDP rally in Kandukuru in Nellore district. 

In the order issued on Monday, the state Home Department barred public meetings and rallies on road margins, roads managed by the state government including the pannchayat raj department and municipal corporations, as well as national highways. "The authorities should avoid permitting meetings on public roads. Only in rare and exceptional circumstances permission for public meetings may be considered, with reasons recorded in writing," the Principal Secretary said. 

He highlighted the Kandukuru incident that occurred on December 28 and noted that "holding of meetings on public roads and road margins is leading to deaths and creating traffic obstructions." Police take a long time to control the situation, he added.

The prohibitory order was issued late on Monday night under the provisions of the Police Act, 1861. The government noted in its order that "the right to conduct a public meeting on public roads and streets is a subject matter of regulation as Section 30 of the Police Act, 1861 itself mandates." According to the order, the government has observed that public meetings on roads cause huge inconvenience to the general public and “the conduct of such public meetings also have proven to lead to injuries and deaths.” 

Eight people died in the stampede in Kandukuru, at a TDP rally at Kandukur organised as part of the party’s ‘Idhem Kharma’ to call attention to the alleged misrule of the YSR Congress Party. The government order highlighted the incident and said, "It is noted that in such roadside meetings, in which people congregate on road margins also, crowd control is not effectively undertaken by reason of the narrow roads, absence of multiple exit points and sudden surge of the crowd towards the Speaker, unregulated number of the participants in the crowd by the organisers, last-minutes changes to the locations on the road etc.,” it said. 

Officials have been instructed to identify alternative designated locations for public meetings away from such roads. The order advised choosing locations away from traffic, where meetings could be held without disturbing nearby residents. It said that only the locations chosen by district authorities should be used for public meetings and rallies, and that permissions shall be given for other locations only in exceptional circumstances. 

With PTI inputs