Puri Rath Yatra: 3 Dead, 50 Injured in Odisha Stampede
New Delhi: At least three people have died while 50 others were injured in a stampede near Shree Gundicha Temple in Odisha’s Puri on Sunday (June 29).
Puri district collector Siddharth S. Swain said the incident took place around 4 am when the crowd near the temple swelled. The injured were taken to a nearby hospital where six remain in critical condition, he added.
The deceased have been identified as Basanti Sahu from Bolagarh and Premakant Mohanty and Pravati Das from Balipatna, news agency PTI has reported.
The bodies have been sent for postmortem and an investigation is underway, the report said.
A lesson not learned
Days before the stampede, former Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik had criticised the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government over lapses in arrangement made for the annual Rath Yatra.
On Friday (June 27), more than 700 devotees were hospitalised due to a stampede-like situation and heat exhaustion.
In addition to the stampede-like situation, the Nandighosha chariot, which was the last to be towed, could not move forward due to the large crowd surrounding it.
Slamming the Mohan Majhi government over these lapses in a post on X, Patnaik said, “And now this year, we witnessed Nandighosha ratha still standing at the Singhadwar till 7:45 p.m., only to move a few metres before the day ended. That understandably has left lakhs of devotees who came from all over the world to witness this unique event completely disenchanted and disillusioned. Hundreds of devotees also got injured due to poor crowd management.”
Patnaik also referred to reports in local media suggesting that ministers in the state government had provided entry passes for the inner cordon to a large number of supporters, which had led to the delay.
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