Puri cops finalise crowd control plan to prevent stampede-like situation

BHUBANESWAR: The Puri police on Wednesday finalised a crowd control contingency plan to prevent stampede-like situations during the Rath Yatra next week. The administration expects a footfall of at least seven lakh devotees from the country and abroad to attend Odisha’s biggest annual festival.
Police sources said about 50 vulnerable points, including some bottlenecks, have been identified on the 3-km Grand Road where a sea of people will turn up to watch the deities aboard their iconic chariots. On Wednesday, Puri SP Kanwar Vishal Singh and other police officers visited those vulnerable places and discussed their plan of action.
“We are prepared with our crowd management plan, which was made after taking feedback from the locals and includes a devotee-oriented arrangement. It will be implemented by officers belonging to the rank of SP/commandants (assisted by other officers) and under direct supervision of senior officers mobilised from state police headquarters,” Singh said.
During the Rath Yatras of 2008, 2010 and 2015, crowd mismanagement had triggered stampede-like situations and while six pilgrims were trampled to death in front of the chariots in 2008, one devotee died in 2010 and two women were killed during Nabakalebara Rath Yatra in 2015.
In January, the state police headquarters had asked all the SPs to reassess their crowd management plans in crowded temples after a stampede on a bridge connecting Singhanath temple in Cuttack district left one devotee dead and many injured.