The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Could the Chennai stampede deaths have been averted?

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Dec 20, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Could the Chennai stampede deaths have been averted?

V. Jayanth

NEWSANALYSYS State Government has not opted to set up all-party committees

CHENNAI: Whatever the pitfalls in the location, or the suspected hand of "miscreants" in rumour-mongering, a widespread belief among the people and experts here is these unfortunate deaths in the MGR Nagar stampede could have been prevented. Interaction with the people in not just that area, but elsewhere in the city, officials involved in the exercise and politicians throws up a wide range of suggestions, which if implemented, could at least prevent the recurrence of such a tragedy.

First and foremost relates to policing, security arrangements and crowd regulation. Police sources insist that the situation outside the school, where the stampede took place, was "absolutely normal" till about midnight. "Most of the people in the queue came after the night show, which must be around 2 a.m.," says a senior police officer. But that may not be the point. The question is what happened at about 4 a.m. when the tragedy occurred.

Apparently, the plan was to begin the crowd regulation and queue formation exercise by around 7 a.m., in time for the opening of the token distribution centres by 9 a.m. Consequently, when the trouble started, there were not enough policemen to control or stop the surging crowds. And once the first line of gatecrashers fell on the slope, there was no stopping the tragedy.

Revenue authorities say they have tried their best to "streamline" the system of token distribution, making it simpler and quicker. Except for the demonstrations and road rokos by those who did not get the token (for various reasons) they did not see any major hitch in the exercise. The police had also made the task easier by working together in the issue of tokens. But there were other complaints that tokens were "sold" for a price and went to "undeserving hands," in the sense that a lot many middle-income families also got the relief, while some genuinely affected families got left out.

Officials no longer with the Revenue wing of the district administration, but who had earlier dealt with such relief measures, point to two major problems posed by the current exercise — one, to cater to a larger mass in an "election year," the Government enlarged the net too wide; and two, even after Vyasarpadi, they did not take corrective measures to prevent such gate-crashing in the wee hours of a Sunday.

The post-tragedy response of the Government has taken its first toll — Chennai District Collector Chandramohan has been transferred. What will happen to the police set up remains to be seen, and watched with interest, given the impression that they are the "favourites" of the Chief Minister.

Another suggestion relates to the formation of all-party committees at the ward or Assembly constituency level. Opposition parties have been crying hoarse from the first week of November — after the first bout of torrential rain — calling for the creation of such committees. Though Ms. Jayalalithaa did announce a decision to constitute district and village level committees to oversee relief and rehabilitation work, Opposition leaders say it remains on paper.

"As the Government wants to keep it as a ruling party affair and claim full credit for whatever is done, they refuse to associate elected representatives of the Opposition in this important sector. That is why they must also take the entire blame for the MGR Nagar stampede and the Vyasarpadi mismanagement as well," reasons a senior DMK functionary. He feels that the Ward Councillors and MLAs would be the best equipped to plan and implement such a major exercise, and they would also be able to control the situation if it goes out of control.

For whatever reason, the State Government has not opted to set up all-party committees at any level.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Tamil Nadu