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UP top brass rushes to Ayodhya for better crowd management
The police had to hold the crowd at the borders of the temple town while authorities appealed to people to visit Ayodhya after a few days
LUCKNOW An unprecedented rush of devotees seeking to have a glimpse of Ram Lalla’s idol since early morning created chaos outside the Ram temple in Ayodhya when it opened for the public on Tuesday, a day after the Pran Pratishtha ceremony.
The state’s top authorities rushed to the temple town for better crowd management. Principal secretary (home) Sanjay Prasad and director general (law and order) Prashant Kumar stayed inside the ‘Garbha Griha’ of the temple for hours to ensure orderly movement of devotees. Even chief minister Yogi Adityanath had to fly over to Ayodhya to take stock of the situation.
Earlier in the day, ADG (Lucknow zone), Piyush Mordia and inspector-general of police (Ayodhya range) Praveen Kumar, along with other local authorities. had to struggle to ensure proper crowd management.
Tuesday’s situation called for a well-planned crowd management system in place to avert future problems in the temple town. The police had to hold the crowd at the borders of the temple town while authorities appealed to people to visit Ayodhya after a few days.
Former UP DGP OP Singh said the most important aspect of crowd management should be channelising people through a longer zig-zag route and complete control at the access point. He said security personnel should be deployed all though the route, so that proper flow is maintained.
“In the present-day era, video analytics through CCTV cameras and drones could be used to assess crowd psychology and its behavior pattern to improve the crowd management system gradually,” he emphasized.
He said proper public address system and digital signages should be in place to guide the crowd towards proper channel while rest camps, toilets and water facility should be ensured all through the route.
OP Singh remained UP DGP for two years from January 2018 to January 2020 when the Ardh Kumbh was held in Prayagraj in 2019. Earlier, he also held the post of DG, Central Industrial Security Force (CISF).
Director of IIM-Indore Himanshu Rai too shared his views on crowd management in Ayodhya, saying that authorities must ensure no bottlenecks are created by people stopping in front of the idol to click photographs or taking extra time to take a glimpse of the deity. Authorities should also be ready with an emergency exit plan in case any person falls sick as well as ambulances and makeshift hospitals, he added.
Rai said drone surveillance also plays a vital role in managing crowds by analyzing and assessing problems through aerial view and subsequently formulating a strategy to disperse or channelise people. He said the most important element is the security aspect and this should be dealt with by a professional and well-trained force.
Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra chief priest Acharya Satyendra Das, however, said it is unlikely that everyone would be able to have a ‘darshan’ (glimpse) of the new Ram Lalla idol as the temple town saw over five lakh devotees turning up to offer prayers on Tuesday.
“So much crowd has gathered here that not everyone will be able to have darshan today and the same crowd will be visible tomorrow and for the next few days,” Das said. While a huge crowd of devotees thronged the gates of Ram Janmabhoomi Mandir, Das said “it seems that the temple city has gone back to the Treta Yug when Lord Ram used to live.”
