Panaji: After chief minister Pramod Sawant on Tuesday made the report of the fact-finding inquiry committee (FFIC) on the Shirgao jatra stampede public, president of the Devi Lairai temple committee in Shirgao, Dinanath Gaonkar, denied the report’s findings of non-cooperation with the district administration.
The FFIC report collectively held the temple committee, district administration, district police, village panchayat, and crowd behaviour, particularly that of ‘dhonds’, responsible for the tragedy, which killed six and injured 100 during the jatra on May 3.
Gaonkar said that the temple committee is yet to receive a copy of the report, but said that any indication of non-cooperation from the temple committee is wrong.
“We have not received a copy of the report yet. We are yet to go through it. Once we receive it, we will go through it and then can comment on it. But it is false that we did not cooperate with the district administration. We had given them full cooperation, 100% cooperation. We will keep the report before the mahajans (temple devotees who are stakeholders), and they will decide on the report findings,” said Gaonkar on Wednesday.
“It is a total lie that we did not cooperate. We cooperated fully with the mamlatdar. We refuse to accept this,” he said.
Sawant had said a day earlier that as per the FFIC report, the temple committee should have cooperated with the district administration. The cooperation required was not received from the temple committee. It did not take any initiative to carry out crowd control. When they were provided suggestions to put up barricades, etc, they did not observe it, Sawant had said.
To prevent any tragedy in the future, the FFIC report has recommended that sensitisation programmes for ‘dhonds’ and devotees should be undertaken by temple priests, religious leaders, and community elders.
“The temple management committee ought to explore the possibility of allowing only the ‘dhonds’ for the rituals on one day of the jatra. All other devotees and the general public to be allowed on all the other days to avoid overcrowding at a given critical period,” the FFIC report said.
The FFIC report collectively held the temple committee, district administration, district police, village panchayat, and crowd behaviour, particularly that of ‘dhonds’, responsible for the tragedy, which killed six and injured 100 during the jatra on May 3.
Gaonkar said that the temple committee is yet to receive a copy of the report, but said that any indication of non-cooperation from the temple committee is wrong.
“We have not received a copy of the report yet. We are yet to go through it. Once we receive it, we will go through it and then can comment on it. But it is false that we did not cooperate with the district administration. We had given them full cooperation, 100% cooperation. We will keep the report before the mahajans (temple devotees who are stakeholders), and they will decide on the report findings,” said Gaonkar on Wednesday.
“It is a total lie that we did not cooperate. We cooperated fully with the mamlatdar. We refuse to accept this,” he said.
Sawant had said a day earlier that as per the FFIC report, the temple committee should have cooperated with the district administration. The cooperation required was not received from the temple committee. It did not take any initiative to carry out crowd control. When they were provided suggestions to put up barricades, etc, they did not observe it, Sawant had said.
To prevent any tragedy in the future, the FFIC report has recommended that sensitisation programmes for ‘dhonds’ and devotees should be undertaken by temple priests, religious leaders, and community elders.
“The temple management committee ought to explore the possibility of allowing only the ‘dhonds’ for the rituals on one day of the jatra. All other devotees and the general public to be allowed on all the other days to avoid overcrowding at a given critical period,” the FFIC report said.
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