By Rajesh Pandey
To check stampedes like a situation that occurred a few years back, the Allahabad High Court has directed the live stream of the proceedings inside the Bankey Bihari temple of Vrindavan on the occasion of the upcoming Janmashtami in consultation with the civil judge (junior division) of Mathura district.
Hearing a PIL filed by one Anant Sharma and another of Mathura after a stampede in the temple in August last year, a division bench comprising Justice Siddhartha Varma and Ram Manohar Narayan Mishra observed, “When the CCTV cameras are installed, the Civil Judge (Junior Division) shall be consulted. The District Magistrate, Mathura shall abide by the directions of the Civil Judge (Junior Division) and shall ensure their compliance”, added the court.
In the PIL, a request was made for proper crowd management, especially during festivals and holidays when lakhs of devotees congregate there.
The court in its order dated August 14 directed the administration to manage the ingress and egress of devotees who are inside the temple.
During the course of the hearing, state government counsel apprised the court as to how the flow of devotees will be managed by installing barricading inside the temple.
“The barricading serves a dual purpose in the sense that it allows for managing the ingress of the devotees as the district administration can ensure that only a specified number of devotees are allowed at any given point of time to ensure that there is no overcrowding inside the premises.” informed the state government counsel.
In the petition, a prayer had been made for proper crowd management, especially during festivals and holidays when lakhs of devotees congregate there.
Earlier, the state government had placed before the court the scheme regarding the development of the temple area as a ‘corridor’ with the purchase of around 5 acres of land around the temple to provide facilities to devotees. As per the scheme, there would be no interference of any kind in “Puja”, “Archana” or “Shringar” carried out by the Goswamis (puris of the temple), and whatever right they have shall be continued to be enjoyed by them.