A stampede at the Ujjain Temple during VIP visits injures many people and violates Covid rules.

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Tuesday, 27th July 2021

On Monday, several devotees, including women and children, were injured in a stampede at Ujjain's famous Mahakaleshwar Siva Temple. The crowd became uncontrollable after VIPs, including Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, disrupted the flow of devotees.

The incident occurred at the temple's gate number four. The security cordon finally gave way after much jostling and pushing, and people simply rushed in. Several tumbled to the ground, and others fell on top of them.

A video of the incident shows police officers being overpowered, as well as some devotees engaging in physical violence.

The Mahakaleshwar temple is one of Lord Siva's 12 Jyotirlingas. It reopened last month, but only for those who had received at least one dose of Covid vaccine or who had a negative RT-PCR test report issued within 48 hours of the visit.

Between 6 a.m. and 8 p.m., up to 3,500 devotees are permitted to enter the premises. There are seven two-hour time slots, each with a capacity of 500 people.

However, VIPs such as Uma Bharti and Mr Chouhan chose to visit the temple with their families on Monday. According to temple officials, this exacerbated the situation for devotees and the administration.

Today was an exception, according to Ujjain District Collector Ashish Singh, and normalcy would resume on Monday.

"We'll sit down and make plans for next Monday. In the kind of free-for-all that we had today, the Covid protocol cannot be followed. There were also too many people in one place at the same time. We will revise the strategy. We will maintain social distance "Mr. Singh stated.

The News Talkie Bureau

Source

NDTV