Andhra Pradesh Dwelling Minister Vangalapudi Anitha mentioned the temple, a non-public one and never below the Endowments Division, normally witnesses a turnout of 1,500 to 2,000 devotees right here each Saturday.
The tragedy was worsened by the Ekadasi observance coinciding with ‘Karthika Masam', drawing massive crowds.
Based on the minister, the temple is positioned at an elevation on the primary flooring, and when the devotees had been climbing, the railing broke, ensuing within the folks standing at a nook falling on each other.
One of many survivors from Dharmapuram village close to Ichchapuram, mentioned the strategy to the temple is slender, with solely a single entry and exit level, which led to a buildup of devotees on either side and resulted in chaos.
A minimum of seven of the useless are within the age group of 35-40.
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu expressing grief over the incident mentioned full-fledged inquiry will likely be finished on the incident.
Addressing a gathering in Sri Sathya Sai district, Naidu blamed the organisers for not informing the police upfront, on account of which ample safety measures couldn't be organized.
Srikakulam district superintendent of police (SP) KV Maheshwara Reddy mentioned it's necessary for temples (or non secular establishments) to take permission from police when they're organising occasions, no matter the energy of the turnout.
“It's undoubtedly necessary below the Public Security Act. They will ask for any variety of folks. It isn't that solely 200 or 2,000 folks. Even when 200 folks come, they will inform us and we are going to assess the state of affairs, based mostly on that we'll present the bandobust,” Reddy instructed PTI.
By the way, the police supplied safety to different temples within the North Andhra district as we speak, however the SP mentioned the proprietor of this explicit temple, Mukunda Panda, failed to tell them.Based on Reddy, Panda constructed the temple with out the requisite permissions and opened it.
(With PTI inputs)
