Death of devotee: A wake-up call for administration

Neeraj Bagga

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, July 9

Death of a devotee while taking part in a religious programme in a narrow lane of the walled city on Wednesday has sent alarm bells ringing for government departments. The incident has prompted them to decide on how to manage crowd in vulnerable areas.

Besides, it has also forced organisers to reconsider holding such programmes in centuries old city. “Although many programmes are organised to commemorate holy events, there is no attempt on the part of administration and organisers to remove encroachments and divert traffic from the route from where religious procession is going to pass,” said a city resident HS Dawar.

He said rampant encroachments by shopkeepers in narrow alleys of the walled city crippled traffic movement. Roads inside Lohgarh, Lahori and Khazana Gates were replete with the violation for decades, he added.

“Narrow roads, especially in the walled city, are already congested, but shopkeepers have turned a blind eye towards the problem,” he added.

He said the MC acted as a mute spectator instead of punishing offenders and guiding organisers of religious programmes.

‘Two-wheelers and cycle rickshaws move at a snail’s pace at the Katra Jai Mal Singh area, Chowk Farid, Bazaar Tahli Sahib, Cash Dhara Bazaar, Telephone Exchange Chowk, Shastri Market, Guru Bazaar, inside Lohgarh Gate, Gate Khazana, Gate Hakima and many places on routine days,” he added.

A resident of Katra Dullo, Raman Mahajan, said the traffic condition was extremely precarious in his area like other parts of the walled city.

He said the road was about 10-feet-wide. A majority of sweetmeat makers and other shopkeepers had placed hearths and material of their shops on roads, he added. Besides, a new trend of using hand-pulled carts on the narrow road from Lohgarh Chowk to Katra Dullo had emerged recently, he added. He said it seemed that the law of the MC did not apply in this area.

A conservationist Balvinder Singh said roads in the city were not wide enough to accommodate influx of large number of people at a time. He said many streets were four to six feet wide and some surprising open spaces were created in these to hold any programmes. These were the distinct character of all medieval towns in the world, he added.

He said it was the duty of the authorities concerned to manage crowd to avoid any untoward incident during religious procession. He added that before holding any religious programme traffic on the route, where the event is to be held, must be restricted and encroachments removed. He said participants should be asked to walk in lines.

Meanwhile, the authorities rued that despite their best efforts, the drive against encroachment yielded no results as shopkeepers put up resistance.

Mayor Bakshi Ram Arora said officials of the MC could ask shopkeepers to remove encroachments and clean the area while the rest was the job of the Police Department. He lamented that encroachments had become a bane of the city and violators were not ready to comply with norms.