Ranchi, Aug. 17: Shravan's third Somvari at Baidyanathdham in Deoghar passed without hitch amid efficient administrative bandobast, underlining the cruel irony that it took a stampede with 10 deaths last week on this day for the state government to wake up.
By 10am today, over 55,000 devotees had already performed puja, a far cry from last Monday when the shroud of death hung heavy in Deoghar, punctuated by the wails of the scores injured.
Today, between 1.5 lakh and 2 lakh devotees offered prayers at Baidyanathdham throughout the auspicious Monday from 4am.
The serpentine queue of devotees for Baidyanath temple stretched to Jasidih overbridge, 2km behind Bela Bagan, the site of last Monday's stampede, but over 2,000 security personnel, including CRPF, RAF and district police kept pace with crowds and did not allow jostling.
Since last night, when devotees swarmed Deoghar to be in time for Monday prayers, ADG S.N. Pradhan, anti-corruption bureau inspector-general Murarilal Meena, Santhal Pargana divisional commissioner L. Khiangte, Dumka range DIG D.B. Sharma, Deoghar DC Rahul Purwar and SP Vipul Shukla toured extensively to check steps for crowd management.
MP Nishikant Dubey of Godda, the Lok Sabha constituency in which Deoghar falls, also supervised crowd control measures well into the wee hours today.
SP Shukla said their first task was to prevent impatience in queues by doing away with backlog.
"It means all those who had queued up for worship by 10pm yesterday were allowed to finish and leave. Even police guarding queues were not allowed to facilitate backdoor entries for friends and relatives," the SP said.
This apart, the district administration extended barricaded areas to enable a degree of comfort for those in the queue. There were separate entry and exit routes for devotees to prevent overcrowding and confusion. Also, generators were installed at places without power supply to light up roads teeming with people overnight.
"Rapid Action Force (RAF) personnel helped pedestrians cross roads while in the queue. We also banned the entry of heavy vehicles," the SP added.
The administration stayed steadfast about not allowing the culture of VIP puja. "There is no VIP puja here (Baidyanathdham)," stressed DC Rahul Purwar.
Assembly Speaker Dinesh Oraon went to worship at the Deoghar temple today but was denied VIP treatment. He offered gangajal in the arghya at Baidyanathdham after which he left for Basukinathdham in adjoining Dumka where, notably, he could secure a Sighra Darshanam token for Rs 300.
The only discordant note so far has been the government's studied silence in response to many pilgrim allegations that police lathicharge last Monday had sparked the stampede in the first place. A week on, no official admission had come in this matter.
All the 10 casualties have been identified and their bodies handed over to their families, DC Purwar said.
He maintained all 10 persons killed in the stampede last Monday had been identified and their bodies handed over to claimants. Legal claimants of the deceased were being verified, he added.
"The next-of-kin of the deceased will get Rs 2 lakh compensation from the state government, another Rs 2 lakh from the Centre and Rs 1 lakh from Baidyanathdham Temple Management Trust," he said.
Each of the injured received Rs 50,000 each from the state and Centre and Rs 25,000 from the temple management trust. "All the injured have received their compensation amounts," the DC said.
Godda MP Dubey, who had come down heavily on the state administration last week for mismanagement, was full of praise for officials today.
"All senior officials did not sleep all through the night. At times, they even walked barefoot to check on proceedings. They have done a commendable job. I also thank NGOs and social organisations who helped," Dubey told The Telegraph this morning.
"Let us hope the next Somvari of this year's Shravan is also as peaceful," he added.
In the capital, chief secretary Rajiv Gauba met senior officials of urban development and tourism departments and stressed on the need to introduce "Tirupati-like puja arrangements" at Baidyanathdham.
Easy booking of time slots, biometric entry passes, multi-storey queue complex, adequate space for devotees to rest while in queues were some of the points discussed at the meeting.
Suspensions
Deoghar SP Vipul Shukla suspended two ASIs and 22 constables on Sunday on charges of dereliction of duty. They were missing from their duty spot when the stampede took place last Monday. He also served showcause on two DSPs.
