Jagan blames Naidu for stampede, says sanctity of Tirumala degraded

Former Chief Minister demands an exgratia of Rs 50 lakh each for the kin of the deceased and Rs 5 lakh each for the injured

Tirupati: YSR Congress Party president and former Chief Minister YS Jaganmohan Reddy on Thursday blamed Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu for the stampede in Tirupati, which claimed the lives of six devotees and left many others injured.

After calling on the injured at a hospital, he said that the sanctity of Tirumala temple had been degraded as never before had such an incident taken place. He alleged that the entire police force was deployed for Chandrababu Naidu’s Kuppam tour for three days and there was no police for crowd management which led to the stampede.

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Naidu, the EO, the AEO, the TTD chairman, the SP, and the Collector should take responsibility for the incident, in which six persons died and nearly 50 persons were injured, he said.

The former Chief Minister demanded an exgratia of Rs 50 lakh each for the kin of the deceased and Rs 5 lakh each for the injured. Jaganmohan Reddy said that every year, lakhs of devotees come on Vaikunata Ekadasi as the Vaikunta Dwaram would be opened and arrangements should have been in place as it has been the practice but this time, there was negligence and lack of manpower to control the crowd which led to the incident.

“This shows how the coalition leaders and TTD top brass treat the devotees who came from far and wide for darshan,” he said. The YSRCP chief recalled that during his party’s government, such events were conducted with care and passion and alleged that this year caution was thrown to the wind.

He said devotees were kept in parks and other places without even giving them food or water, no proper arrangements were made to handle the crowd, and no queue system was followed. Jaganmohan Reddy alleged that Chandrababu Naidu, who lied about the Tirupati laddu, has the least respect for the holy place.

Though the officials claim that the incident took place only at Bharagi Mattam, injured people had come from all token counter centres, he said. The YSRCP leader said the ambulance also reached very late and some people went on their own to hospitals and the official machinery tried to discharge patients after coming to know that he would be coming to console them.