Commission of Inquiry visits Guntur stampede venue, collects information

GUNTUR: The Commission of Inquiry set up by the State government to probe the stampedes that took place at TDP meetings in Nellore and Guntur districts, visited Guntur on Thursday. Eleven persons were killed in the two stampedes that took place within a week. The commission headed by retired judge of Andhra Pradesh High Court Justice B Seshasayana Reddy, visited the meeting venue at Vikas Nagar. It questioned the local TDP corporator pertaining to arrangements made for the event, the number of counters set up for the distribution of Chandranna Kanuka, and the entry and exit points of the ground.

On the occasion of New Year, the Vuyyuru Foundation organised the Chandranna Kanuka distribution programme for women. According to reports, over 25,000 women attended the meeting. TDP chief Nara Chandrababu Naidu launched the programme after addressing the crowd. Soon after he left the venue, the women who had been waiting in long queues for several hours, rushed to the counters at once to get Chandranna Kanuka kits, which resulted in a stampede in which three women were killed and 17 injured.

The commission has recorded the statements of a few injured women and witnesses of the stampede. Later, Justice Seshasayana Reddy collected information pertaining to the incident from District Collector Venugopal Reddy and SP Arif Hafeez. It also interacted with the families of the deceased women and recorded their statements.

The government had asked the commission to recommend institutional mechanism and safeguards to be in place to prevent recurrence of such incidents in the future. The  commission  will  submit its report to the government within a month.