Nearly two weeks after the unfortunate incident of stampede in a queue for Vaikuntha Dwara Darshan tickets in Tirupati in which six devotees died, the Chandrababu Naidu government on Wednesday appointed retired high court judge Justice Satyanarayana Murthy to conduct a inquiry into the incident.
The incident happened on the night of January 8 and Naidu, who rushed to Tirupati the next day, announced the judicial inquiry into the incident. So, it took 13 days to issue orders appointing the judicial commission.
What is more surprising is that the government has given six months’ time for the judicial commission to submit a report after conducting the probe.
One wonders whether the commission would require six months’ time for conducting the judicial probe.
It is a clear case of mishandling of the situation both by the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams and the Tirupati district administration, including the police.
All that the Commission needs is to talk to the devotees who were present in the crowd during the stampede, officials who were in-charge of the situation, and the local people and study the arrangements available at the grounds where tickets were distributed.
An analyst from Tirupati said It might not take more than a month or two to complete the probe, unless the terms of reference given to the commission are more comprehensive and detailed about the entire Vaikuntha Dwara Darshan issue.
“It looks like the Naidu government is of the view that the people will forget the incident if the inquiry is delayed as long as possible, as is the case with the so-called probe into the Tirupati laddu adulteration controversy,” he said.
It has been nearly four months since the CBI-led Special Investigation Team has begun the probe into the Tirupati laddu adulteration. Nobody knows what is happening to the investigation so far.
