Learning lessons from 2022 stampede incident, policing should be improved during Chithirai festival, says Minister Palanivel Thiaga Rajan

Minister urges caution for Chithirai festival after 2022 stampede, emphasizing crowd control, parking restrictions, and security measures.

“As we have already witnessed the obvious fault lines in traffic management and crowd control that caused the death and stampede of devotees during 2022 Chithirai festival, we should be extra cautious during this year’s festival arrangements,” Minister for Information Technology and Digital Services PTR Palanivel Thiaga Rajan has said. 

The remarks came at a Chithirai festival preparatory meeting held here on Sunday.

A study conducted following the incident revealed that of the 200 vehicles on Government Rajaji Hospital Road, more than 100 were parked permanently. Hence, in order to prevent such incidents, police should ensure zero parking in crucial areas 24 hours prior to the event, he said.  

As major construction works were under way at Goripalayam and other areas, they should be tightly secured and all other places posing danger to the public should be barricaded and restricted. Akin to the Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) pass system or QR code pass system, which were used during the Tiruvannamalai temple event, a similar pass was to be introduced for the Chithirai festival too, he added.  

“The system has been introduced to rule out misuse of pass by the public and VIPs,” he further said.  

He also directed the district administration to deploy senior revenue officials or senior police officials at VIP and VVIP entrances. “Senior officials would be more suitable to handle important visitors trying to flout the entry rules. Also, in case of VIPs, the situation should be handled calmly and CCTV recordings can be perused for further action.”  

Instead of allowing devotees to the last temple point, they should be controlled even before the buffer zone of the temple for better crowd management. Learning from past experiences, police, revenue and temple administration officials should work together for better crowd management, he said.