Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): The stampede incident at Prayagraj claimed several lives during the ongoing Maha Kumbh fair. Madhya Pradesh has taken it as one of the parts of its study on Prayagraj fair so that shortcomings in safety arrangements could be identified and accordingly adequate safety measures could be put in place in the upcoming Ujjain Simhastha to prevent occurrence of any such incident.
A senior officer of Urban Development and Housing Department told Free Press that already a group of government officers had travelled to Prayagraj to study best practices of Prayagraj Maha Kumbh. The management of fair was at par in many ways. However, the stampede incident fuelled by a rumour resulted into the tragic incident.
‘We will study the stampede incident so that no such mishap takes place in the upcoming Ujjain Simhastha,’ he said. He added that crores of people throng at Prayagraj on Mauni Amavasya night and the administration failed to anticipate such a huge outpour of pilgrims. There was exponential rise of crowd at 1 am on Mauni Amavasya at Prayagraj. ‘In comparison to Prayagraj Maha Kumbh, we are expecting more crowd in the upcoming Ujjain Simthasta. Henceforth, we need to do far better arrangements than Prayagraj,’ the officer said.
Simhastha to be held in 3K hectares
The proposed Ujjain Simhastha fair will be organised in around 3k hectares. Prayagraj Maha Kumbh has been organised in 4k hectare. Ujjain is having four main ghats where ‘Shahi Snan’ of saints will take place and one of them is Ramghat.
‘Team studied best practices of Maha Kumbh’
Ujjain Collector Neeraj Kumar Singh told Free Press that the study team of the district went to Prayagraj to study best practices of the fair. Arrangement in terms of parking, use of artificial intelligence (AI), arrangement of Disaster Management equipment, movement of people from railway stations was excellent. Meanwhile, the administration will undertake preparations by keeping Prayagraj stampede incident in mind so that no such incident takes place in Simhastha. Moreover, contemplation is to make air ambulance available during Ujjain Simhastha.
