Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Thursday announced a judicial inquiry into the Tirupati temple stampede in which six people were killed and dozens injured, and transferred three senior officials including the Superintendent of Police of Tirupati district.One deputy superintendent of police, who was on the spot, has been suspended, he said.
Expressing grief over the Wednesday night incident, Naidu also announced Rs 25 lakh ex-gratia to the kin of the deceased and Rs 2 lakh to those injured.
Addressing a press conference, the chief minister also attacked the previous YSRCP for changing practices in the temple. According to him, a new system of issuing tokens was introduced by the previous regime in Tirupati as opposed to the earlier system of giving them in Tirumala hills.
“In the past, so many problems have come up. We are correcting everything, starting with prasadam (consecrated food), annadanam (free food to devotees), even cottages, administration and everything. All of a sudden this incident happened.
“This incident also happened due to a legacy problem. Never in my lifetime tokens were given in Tirupati for ‘darshan’ (to see the deity). For the last five years, they (YSRCP) introduced new practices,” Naidu said, without directly naming the Jagan Mohan Reddy-led party.
He further said he noticed some loopholes in the administration and monitoring mechanisms in Tirupati which should have been ‘perfect’. Naidu also said no “adequate precautions” were taken while opening the gates and that triggered the incident.