Simple crowd control measures could have averted MP stampede: Kiran Bedi

Ex-police officer Kiran Bedi said that the MP temple tragedy could have been avoided but cautioned against politicising the tragedy.

In a late night discussion on CNN-IBN, she said, “If we politicise it, then we will run down each other. This is a failure of the district administration. For every minor thing the local administration can’t look up to district administration.”

According to her, the local administration should have been trained in crowd management and a proper plan should have been in place. She suggested some basic plans like not mixing traffic with the public and employing volunteers from nearby areas to bolster the security forces.

Rahul Easwar of Sabarimala Temple trust said that they had scientific crowd control measures in Sabarimala Temple that had helped them avert any major accidents. “There is constant monitoring of the crowd. There are virtual queues by which you can avoid long queues. This takes off a sizeable amount of people from the roads that make it easier to manage it.”

Anant Gadgil, Congress leader from Maharashtra said that even temples like Siddhivinayak and Shirdi in Maharashtra received huge amount of people, but were better prepared to handle them. He said, “A meeting is conducted with local level administration and police. This ensures coordination between all the stakeholders.”