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Sea of faith: Devotees swarm Ram Mandir, testing bandobast
As around five lakh people arrive for darshan in Ayodhya on the first day, CM Yogi Adityanath flies to temple town to assess the situation.
At the first break of day light on Tuesday, devotees started turning up at the main entrance of Ram Mandir at the Ram Janmabhoomi Path to pay obeisance to the deity, a day after the consecration ceremony of Ram Lalla, leading to a stampede-like situation in Ayodhya.
In response to the surging crowds, Chief minister Yogi Adityanath himself took charge, personally flying to Ayodhya to assess the situation firsthand. The state’s top authorities also 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.
The chief minister also made an appeal to the devotees arriving from different parts of the country to maintain patience. Assuring devotees of a seamless darshan of Lord Shri Ram, he urged them to exercise patience and cooperate with Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust, local police, and administration officials to avoid any inconveniences.
On Tuesday morning, all roads in the temple town led to Ram Mandir, and the Ram Path transformed into a sea of humanity. By 7 am, the crowd had swelled, with people lining up to enter the temple premises, leaving the administration gasping for breath. Cops had a tough time controlling the situation as devotees nearly trampled over each other to enter the temple premises. However, a stampede was averted due to the timely action of the police, who had to resort to mild cane charges twice to gain control.
Read Here: Degrees of devotion in the journey of faith in Ayodhya as Ram Temple inaugurated
As a final measure, entry into the Ram Mandir was temporarily halted, resulting in a partial alleviation of the crowd pressure. Additional police force was rushed to the temple, including RAF, SSB and local police. Barricades were put up at Ram Janmabhoomi Path to restrict the movement of the zealous crowd. However, the respite was short-lived, as by 2 pm, an unprecedented surge of devotees crowded the temple when it was reopened.
Devotees began gathering once again on both ends of the road leading to the temple. Upon receiving the news, top officials of the Ayodhya administration swiftly dispatched additional police forces to manage the situation. IG, Ayodhya range, Praveen Kumar said, “Extra force is deployed to guard against any untoward incident, but people are requested to wait for their turn to ensure that there is no panic.”
The head priest of Ram Mandir, Satyendra Das, appeared overjoyed at the ‘joyousness’ that prevailed all over Ayodhya. “For people like us, it appears like we are transported into the ‘Treta Yug’ when Ram ji was there. It’s like the Lord’s second homecoming, and the people are getting soaked in the sea of devotion,” he said.
For devotees seeking darshan of Ram Lalla, the Trust has provided specific time slots – 7 am to 11.30 am and from 2 pm to 7 pm.
However, on Tuesday, the Trust extended darshan till 9 pm in view of the overwhelming crowd. The Ayodhya administration is also working on ticketing systems and introduction of a tourist police force to manage crowds effectively. “To handle the influx of tourists, we already have an Ayodhya Vision Document, and we are already moving ahead according to that. By the yearend, the daily tourist count is expected to be around 2 to 3 lakh per day, surpassing every city in the world. We are ready for it,” said Mukesh Meshram, principal secretary, tourism and culture.
Meanwhile, the Uttar Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation on request from the district magistrate of Ayodhya suspended all buses to the holy town.
