Two weeks into the Maha Kumbh and we have already witnessed a major fire break out in the tents and we have witnessed a stampede that has claimed 30 lives officially. Lessons should have been learnt from the 1954 Kumbh stampede where 200 lives were lost. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case as the saints are claiming that the security officials were busy safeguarding the movement of the VIPs, leaving the common devotees unattended.
Most people in India are uncivilized; they don't follow a proper queue system. They would rush to reach somewhere before others and as a result, chaos happens. You need officials to control the crowd. If you do not keep the necessary precautions in place, there is always a possibility of a major mishap and unfortunately, something of that sort happened last night where a stampede broke out, claiming 30 lives with more than 90 people injured.
It was the night of ‘Mouni Amavasya’, an auspicious day to take a holy dip in the river. So there was a huge crowd. To make matters worse, an official announced that those who would take the dip early would get “Amrit” i.e. divine syrup. Everybody rushed in large numbers, breaking all the protocols with nobody to control the crowd and a stampede followed. The saints were saying this morning that the officials were busy with the VIPs. They had requested army assistance to conduct the Kumbh Mela but the government didn't listen to it.
It is yet to be identified who was the one who made the announcement that led to the stampede among the blind devotees who wanted to taste Amrit but paid for it with their own lives. The UP police are also hesitant to share the actual number of deaths; they are most likely downplaying it to hide the scale of the disaster. It was 10 in the morning, 15 in the afternoon, and 30 by the evening and the toll is only increasing as the hours progress.
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