Team Herald
PANJIM: The State administration has come under heavy criticism from the Opposition and civil society for its failure to control the crowd at the Shirgao zatra, which resulted in a deadly stampede early Saturday morning, claiming six lives and leaving over 70 injured.
While the opposition has squarely blamed the administration and the police for the tragedy, the Shree Lairai Temple managing committee has given the authorities a clean chit and instead attributed the chaos to the unruly behaviour of Dhonds (devotees who undertake the pilgrimage on foot).
Temple managing committee chairman Dinanath ‘Dina’ Gaonkar maintained that the stampede was solely due to the conduct of the Dhonds. “The government, police department or temple committee are in no way responsible for the chaos. There was no mismanagement on their part. The stampede was triggered because of the Dhonds,” he reiterated.
However, the Opposition parties strongly disagreed, holding the administration responsible for a massive breakdown in crowd control and emergency preparedness.
Goa Forward Party president and Fatorda MLA Vijai Sardesai questioned how such a disaster could occur despite government claims of having deployed over 1,000 police personnel and using drones for crowd monitoring. “Why did this happen if everything was supposedly in place?” he asked.
The Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) Goa unit also pointed fingers at the authorities, citing eyewitness reports that indicated a complete collapse of crowd management systems. “The government had claimed that more than 1,000 personnel would be on duty and that drones would help manage the large crowds that always attend this zatra. But clearly, there was no crowd management plan, no infrastructure to regulate the flow of people, and most critically, no emergency response mechanisms in place,” said AAP State president, Adv Amit Palekar.
Mayem-based AAP leader Rajesh Kalangutkar, who lost two relatives in the tragedy, stated that many of the injured suffered serious fractures and received no first aid at the site. “Most of them had to be rushed to hospitals in private vehicles. The government has failed at every level,” he said.
He further criticised the government’s lack of preparedness, pointing out that after the recent stampede at the Maha Kumbh in Prayagraj, the BJP-led government in Goa should have learnt from Uttar Pradesh’s mistakes. “Instead of genuine disaster and crowd management, the Pramod Sawant-led government only managed media optics through press conferences,” Kalangutkar remarked.
Echoing similar sentiments, Goa Pradesh Congress Committee general secretary Manisha Usgaonkar held the government responsible for the “clear case of administrative negligence”. “Despite having declared it a State festival, the government failed to provide adequate planning and organisation. This complete mismanagement has cost innocent lives,”
she said.