No more stampedes in Maharashtra temples
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Stampedes, which periodically claims hundreds of lives in various temples in different parts of the country, will be a thing of the past in Maharashtra soon.
The Maharashtra government is working on a plan to minimise the risk of stampedes occurring in temples in the state. As per this plan, temples across the state will be graded on the basis of safety risks to devotees caused by heavy festival-day crowds. The state law and judiciary department is working to classify all shrines registered with the charity commissioner by October end this year so that they can come up with crowd control and security measures at these places.
The government plans to create a disaster management plan for every temple according to the magnitude of crowds visiting the shrines. It will grade temples according to the number of devotees. Once data is ready, it will be easy to give suggestions on crowd management techniques to the district collector. From next year, every temple will get its own disaster management plan. Around 53,000 temple trusts are registered with the charity commissioner and the district administration. All temples will be covered by the classification.
As per the plan, gradation will be done on the basis of the number of devotees visiting a temple in a year or during festival days or jatras (processions). Grading will also be according to a temple’s financial resources.
The government's initiative in this regard comes in the wake of findings that unplanned overcrowding at temples leads to accidents, killing hundreds of people. The Satara stampede killed 291 people. The tragedy took place during the annual jatra, when lakhs of people gathered at the shrine. The narrow and sloping path leading to the temple had become slippery due to the breaking of coconuts and spilling of oil used for the deepstambha (lamp pillar). An explosion of LPG cylinders triggered the stampede. After this incident, the local administration placed a ban on lighting oil lamps, breaking coconuts and animal sacrifice at temples.
The most visited temples and shrines in the state include Shri Swami Samarth Math at Akkalkot, Saptashrungi Devi at Wani, Khandoba temple at Jejuri, Bharadidevi at Malvan, Gajanan Maharaj at Shegaon, Ganesh temple at Ganpatipule and Mahalaxmi and Babulnath in Mumbai. Though Siddhivinayak also sees a heavy rush of pilgrims, the numbers are distributed throughout the year. At the other shrines, an annual festival can bring a sudden rush of pilgrims, which becomes unmanageable.
