Puri stampede: 147 people record statements before inquiry team
These people recorded their statements before Development Commissioner-cum-Additional Chief Secretary Anu Garg, who is leading the administrative inquiry, they said.
During the last hearing, held at the Special Circuit House, Puri on Wednesday, 42 people, including police personnel and staffers who were on duty on June 29 and deployed at the Integrated Command and Control Centre (ICCC), recorded their statements, the officials said.
Ms. Garg, who has been asked to submit a report by July 30, said, 'We have recorded statements of different stakeholders both in Bhubaneswar and Puri in four different sessions."
Seventeen people attended the public hearings in Bhubaneswar, and three other sessions were held in Puri, where many others recorded their statements on the stampede incident which took place near the Shree Gundicha temple, she said.
The stampede took place amid a massive rush of devotees early on June 29 when three chariots of sibling deities were parked in front of the Shree Gundicha temple.
Ms. Garg started her inquiry the next day and has so far met servitors, police, public and other stakeholders for preparing her final report.
She has visited the site where the stampede took place, an official said. Immediately after the tragic incident, the state government had placed the then collector and SP of Puri under suspension.
Ms. Garg, during her inquiry, also met both the officers and held discussions with senior officials of Jagannath Temple Police (JTP) and media persons.
She sought video recording from media houses and the public, the official added.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
New Indian Express
6 hours ago
- New Indian Express
BJD to raise growing crime against women in Odisha in Parliament session: MP Patra
BHUBANESWAR: The BJD is set to raise the issue of deteriorating law and order situation in Odisha, especially the growing crime against women, during the monsoon session of Parliament beginning Monday. After attending the all-party meeting ahead of the Parliament session in New Delhi on Sunday, BJD Rajya Sabha MP Sasmit Patra told mediapersons that there seems to be a complete collapse of law and order situation in the state. There has also been an alarming rise in heinous crimes against women and girl children in Odisha. Patra said the recent incident of self-immolation of a girl student of FM (Autonomous) College in Balasore has shaken the conscience of the nation. He highlighted that the victim had reached out to the BJP MP in Balasore and also to the local administration. 'She had also brought her plight to the notice of the chief minister and the Higher Education minister, but everyone turned their back. She was a student as well as an active member of ABVP,' he said. Soon after the Balasore incident, a 15-year-old girl in Puri district was set ablaze by miscreants. 'This clearly shows how the Odisha BJP government is ruling the state in utter lawlessness and anarchy,' Patra said. The BJD MP said death of three devotees outside the Gundicha temple during Rath Yatra in Puri due to a stampede and other issues focused on the state's interest will also be raised by the party during the session. BJD leaders and workers earlier gheraoed Balanga police station demanding immediate arrest of the culprits in the incident. A large number of party leaders and workers lit lamps in front of the Lingaraj temple in the evening praying for the early recovery of the victim.
The Print
7 hours ago
- The Print
Chandrababu Naidu is dreaming new dreams at 75. What other CMs are missing
That was in 2000. The Telugu Desam Party (TDP) provided crucial support to the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led government then. Garg was the director of the Department of Economic Affairs (DEA) in the finance ministry. He writes that the hoarding of resources 'was clearly unfair and lopsided.' The World Bank assistance, specifically cheaper credits from the International Development Agency (IDA), was meant for low-income and poorer states. 'Using the efficiency of his administration and his political clout, Chandrababu Naidu was able to manoeuvre the system in Delhi, including the DEA, to divert a disproportionate part of the Government of India budget and external assistance to Andhra Pradesh,' writes Garg. Chandrababu Naidu bays for my blood'—This is a subhead in Subhash Chandra Garg's new book No, Minister . In the section, the former finance secretary of India writes how the Naidu-led Andhra Pradesh had 'cornered more than 40 per cent of the total portfolio of projects' approved by the World Bank in 1999–2000. He has cited another example. In 2001, the Andhra Pradesh Structural Adjustment Loan (SAL) for $250 million was being negotiated with the World Bank. The package also included a $100 million grant from the Department for International Development (DFID) to India. The DFID grant and the World Bank loan were to go to Andhra Pradesh on the standard 70:30 loan–grant ratio. The Naidu-led government, however, reached an understanding with the DFID—without the DEA's concurrence—to make it a 100 per cent grant. Garg wouldn't agree to it; he got them to agree to the DEA's terms. Two days after the negotiations were completed, the DEA Secretary asked Garg to again submit the Andhra file to him. The file came back with orders, approved by the finance minister, that an exception be made in the case and that the DFID grant be given to Andhra Pradesh as a 100 per cent grant. 'Evidently, on his return to India, Chandrababu Naidu had moved heaven and earth and forced the government at the highest level to agree to his completely unjustified demand,' writes Garg. 'The utter disregard for fair distribution of central government resources to all the states and the manic zeal and insistence to grab all resources for Andhra Pradesh were disturbing,' he writes. V Srinivas, private secretary to then finance minister Jaswant Singh, later told Garg that VS Sampath, the Andhra finance secretary who went on to become the chief election commissioner of India, sought his help to 'find ways to fix Subhash'. Nobody would be surprised to read ex-IAS officer Garg's account of how Chandrababu Naidu used his clout in the Vajpayee government to wrangle anything and everything from the Centre for his state. Garg's counterparts in other departments would have similar stories to tell. Let me cite just one more example here. Of the 4 million tonnes of rice the Centre sanctioned for the Food for Work programme between September 2001 and April 2002, Andhra alone got 2.15 million tonnes, 53 per cent of the total. And then it got one million tonnes more. Cut to 2025. Naidu hasn't changed. Only that it's now the Narendra Modi-led government that is going out of its way to please the Andhra CM. The Centre has already committed Rs 15,000 crore for Phase I of the Amaravati capital project. The state has secured Rs 12,157 crore from the Centre to support the first phase of the Polavaram irrigation project. In May, PM Narendra Modi laid the foundation for central projects worth Rs 5,000 crore, including a missile testing centre, Unity mall, Rail overbridge and six national highway projects in Andhra. And these are early days yet. Modi 3.0 still has four years left, and Naidu will continue to be vital for its survival. Also read: Chandrababu Naidu is important in both Centre and state. He is his own double-engine now Political opportunism or Andhra First? The former finance secretary of India has only revived an old debate. Chandrababu Naidu's political rivals and critics have a long list of his political 'betrayals'— marrying NT Rama Rao's daughter and then leaving the Congress to join the TDP; ousting NTR to become the CM; leaving the United Front to support the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government in 1998; Lok Sabha Speaker GMC Balayogi from the TDP allowing then Odisha CM Giridhar Gomang (who was yet to resign as MP) to vote against the confidence motion, which ended up bringing the Vajpayee government down in 1999; joining the NDA in 1999 Lok Sabha election to reap the electoral dividends of the Kargil War; demanding Narendra Modi resign as Gujarat CM post-2002 riots to joining hands with him ahead of the 2014 election; leaving the NDA for the Congress five years later only to re-embrace Modi before 2024 Lok Sabha and Assembly elections. It's certainly a long list. Naidu's critics would call them examples of political opportunism. His admirers would cite them as examples of his brilliant political acumen and his ability to play bigger national parties to his advantage. And, ex-IAS officer Subhash Garg as a neutral observer is only the latest to certify that Andhra Pradesh has made the biggest gains from Naidu's political somersaults. I call it his Andhra First politics. Take a look at this report by India Today in May 2002: 'Over the past five years, Naidu has managed to get the Central ministries to pour over Rs 40,000 crore into Andhra Pradesh. While the Central loans have doubled in five years from Rs 1,575.6 to Rs 3,189.9 crore, grants have jumped from Rs 1,528 crore to Rs 3,424.1 crore and external assistance has trebled from Rs 1,118 to Rs 3,640 crore. That the state has cornered a lion's share of resources is proved by just one statistic: while Central grants to all states increased by only 2.6 per cent between 2000-1 and 2001-2, Andhra Pradesh's share rose by 34 per cent.' The report quoted Congress MP Renuka Chowdhury as saying that Naidu's success in extracting resources was due to 'a weak Centre vulnerable to political blackmail'. When you talk to Congress MPs today, as the Modi-led government showers Naidu's Andhra with generosity, they echo similar sentiments. But ask the people in Andhra Pradesh. They would repeat the Onida TV slogan: 'Neighbour's envy, owner's pride.' Also read: Nobody should doubt Chandrababu Naidu's determination. If anything, they should fear it What other CMs need to learn from CBN Chandrababu Naidu, 75, is the third-oldest CM in India today—after Kerala's Pinarayi Vijayan, 80 and Karnataka's Siddaramaiah, 76. CBN, as he's known in the state, could afford to rest on his laurels. Creating something like Cyberabad and Genome Valley in Hyderabad would have been a lifetime achievement for any CM. Instead, he is setting new challenges for himself. 'Same things (liked Cyberabad) can't be created but improved versions (can be brought),' Naidu told me in an interview last month. It's not just the creation of the new capital city of Amaravati. CBN has now set out to build India's first quantum computing valley. He has launched a space policy to leverage Sriharikota's strategic location in Andhra Pradesh. It aims to attract investment worth Rs 25,000 crore in space-linked industries. He is very optimistic about his Zero Poverty-P4 (Public-Private-People Partnership) programme. I could tell this by the child-like excitement in his voice when he was telling me about P4. At a time when most Opposition leaders seem to be convinced that poverty can be eliminated only when the rich are made poor, Naidu's P4 is an interesting idea. You don't have to be an Adani or Ambani to participate in it. If you have surplus money to spare, help a family, mentor them. You can do it at the community level, too. What differentiates CBN from other CMs is ideas—original, imaginative and innovative. Look at his counterparts in other states. Most of them are doing the same things, often aping each other. At 75, Naidu stands apart. 'Imagination has no age,' wrote senior Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh functionary Ram Madhav, quoting Walt Disney, in a column in The Indian Express. He was building a case for PM Modi and RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat to ignore the unwritten 75-year age ceiling for holding office. Age doesn't matter unless you are a cheese, wrote Madhav. It's true. As I mentioned, Naidu's much younger counterparts in other states already look jaded and spent in terms of originality or ideas or imagination in policymaking. Is Modi 3.0 any different? That's food for thought for another column. DK Singh is Political Editor at ThePrint. He tweets @dksingh73. Views are personal. (Edited by Theres Sudeep)
New Indian Express
2 days ago
- New Indian Express
Orissa High Court upholds right to protest, quashes Rayagada DM's order
CUTTACK: The Orissa High Court on Friday quashed a controversial order issued by the Rayagada collector that barred Bhawanipatna-based doctor Randall Sequeira from entering the district. The June 4 order, which also applied to noted activist Medha Patkar and 22 others, was imposed ahead of a planned protest against proposed bauxite mining at the Sijimali hills. Delivering the verdict, Justice SK Panigrahi held that blanket bans on protest activities are contrary to constitutional values. 'In a constitutional democracy, the government should focus on dialogue and management rather than exclusion,' the court said, emphasising that reasonable regulation and not prohibition is the appropriate response to concerns over law and order. The court took note of the context in which the ban was issued - during the Rath Yatra festivities, when police resources were stretched thin. However, it stated that those constraints were temporary and it was no longer justifiable to continue the restrictions. Dr Sequeira, who has provided free healthcare services to tribal communities in Rayagada and Kalahandi for several years, had challenged the ban as unconstitutional. His counsel, Advocate Afraaz Suhail, argued that the order disrupted essential services and violated his client's fundamental rights. While lifting the restriction on Dr Sequeira, the court laid down operational guidelines for future protests. These include prior notification to authorities, cooperation from organisers, state facilitation of venue and time, and proportionate restrictions to maintain public order. This apart, protesters must ensure peaceful conduct and authorities must avoid arbitrary denial of protest rights. The court stressed that these guidelines are case-specific and do not dilute broader constitutional protections under Article 19. Violations by protesters or unjustified restrictions by authorities will both be subject to legal scrutiny, it said. Dr Sequeira is now free to enter Rayagada district and resume his work. The status of the ban on other activists, including Medha Patkar and Prafulla Samantara, remains unclear as of the judgment by Justice Panigrahi on Friday.
