The ban on vehicular traffic entering Ayodhya, apparently, has not dampened the mood of devotees who continue to flock to the holy city.According to reports, devotees are undeterred by the Tuesday late-night ban and are now walking on foot to reach Ayodhya and have ‘darshan’ of the new temple.
Since all vehicular movement towards Ayodhya was stopped on Tuesday night, people are now walking to the holy city. An estimated three lakh people visited the temple on Tuesday.The unprecedented rush of devotees seeking to have a glimpse of Ram Lalla’s idol created chaos outside the Ram temple in Ayodhya when it opened for the public, a day after the Pran Pratishtha ceremony.
Principal secretary (home) Sanjay Prasad and director general (law and order) Prashant Kumar rushed to the temple town for better crowd management and stayed inside the ‘Garbha Griha’ of the temple for hours to ensure orderly movement of devotees. Even Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had to fly over to Ayodhya to take stock of the situation.
Earlier in the day, ADG (Lucknow zone), Piyush Mordia and inspector-general of police (Ayodhya range) Praveen Kumar, along with other local authorities, had to struggle to ensure proper crowd management.
The police had to hold the crowd at the borders of the temple town while authorities appealed to people to visit Ayodhya after a few days.Former UP DGP O.P. Singh said the most important aspect of crowd management should be channelising people through a longer zig-zag route and complete control at the access point.
“Video analytics through CCTV cameras and drones could be used to assess crowd psychology to improve the crowd management system gradually,” he emphasized.He said that authorities must ensure no bottlenecks are created by people stopping in front of the idol to click photographs or taking extra time to take a glimpse of the deity.
Authorities should also be ready with an emergency exit plan in case any person falls sick as well as ambulances and makeshift hospitals. Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra chief priest Acharya Satyendra Das, however, said on Wednesday that it is unlikely that everyone would be able to have a ‘darshan’ of the new Ram Lalla idol in the temple town due to huge crowds.