Six pilgrims killed, 150 injured in stampede at Tirupati temple
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The incident took place in the evening at the Vaikunta Dwara Darshan tickets distribution point near Vishnu Nivasam.
"Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu is closely monitoring the incident and will meet the families of the victims." Great!!!
Temple stampede is a frequent incident in India. Who has the solution? Certainly not these people.
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HYDERABAD, Jan 8: Six pilgrims were killed in a stampede at Tirupati temple
in Andhra Pradesh on Wednesday evening. Nearly 150 others were also injured
in the incident at the Lord Venkateswara Swamy temple on Tirumala Hills.
The mishap occurred when the police opened one of the gates early for the distribution of tokens for Vaikunta Dwara Darshan beginning on Friday. A crowd of 4,000-5,000 people pushed forward at the gate, where the stampede took place. The stampede occurred due to the heavy rush, witnesses said.
They said they joined the queue at 11 am and while waiting in the queue they were well-treated with milk and biscuits but when the gate opened in the evening the devotees surged forward. There were not enough arrangements for crowd management.
The incident took place at the tickets distribution point near
Vishnu Nivasam. Ninety counters were set up at eight centres and 1.20 lakh tokens
were to be distributed at these centres only from 5 am on January 9 for darshan on
January 10, 11 and 12 - to accommodate 40,000 devotees on each day.
Pilgrims were gathering from all over the country for the 10-day Vaikunta Dwara
Darshanam festival beginning on January 10 this year. The sacred threshold,
'Vaikunta Dwaram', will be open these 10 days. Devotees can see the deity from
the temple's northern entrance called Vaikunta Dwaram (Main entrance is on eastern
side) these 10 days. But Ekadasi is only one day, that falls on January 10 this year.
Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) Chairman BR Naidu said only one body has
been identified. "A DSP opened the gates and immediately everybody pushing ahead
led to this stampede and reports are emerging that six persons died," he told
the media.
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu will meet the families of
the victims of the stampede on Thursday. He warned that such incidents should
not be repeated!!!
What is Vaikunta Dwara Darshanam or Vaikunta Ekadasi
It is believed that devotees walking through the gate called Vaikunta Dwara,
which opens only for the Vaikunta Ekadasi festival, attains salvation ('moksha'
or liberation). It is a symbol of entry to the abode of Lord Vishnu, Vaikunta.
The walk-through is also seeing the passage and so it is called Vaikunta Dwara
Darshanam. Pilgrims throng the temple in lakhs from all over for the auspicious
day. Darshan tokens are issued to control the crowds.
The 11th day of each lunar fortnight is called an Ekadasi, ie, occurring twice
every month. The word 'Ekadashi' in Sanskrit means "the eleventh". However,
Vaikunta Ekadasi is observed only once in a year.
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