CHENNAI: Five senior IAS and IPS officials addressed the media at the Secretariat here on Tuesday, defending the measures taken before and in the aftermath of the stampede at actor-politician Vijay’s rally in Karur that resulted in the death of 41 people.
Revenue secretary P Amudha, Home secretary Dheeraj Kumar, Health secretary P Senthilkumar, DGP / HoPF (in-charge) G Venkataraman and ADGP (Law and Order) Davidson Devasirvatham briefed the press, answering multiple allegations levelled at the government with regard to the stampede to say that there was no mishandling on the part of the government.
Responding to a question about whether the police had an evacuation plan for a mishap, Devasirvatham said that the rally was at an open space (a road) and that there was ample space on all sides for people to leave if they wanted to. But they wanted to stay, the IPS officer said.
The officers stressed that the crowds were waiting for a long time to see their leader. To a question on whether the rally could have been called off in light of violations, Devasirvatham said that it could not have been done, as the consequences of stopping the event could be unexpected.
Answering the charge of ambulances disrupting the rally, Senthilkumar said that the first emergency call to 108 came as early as 7:14 pm, when Vijay's speech was still underway. A total of six ambulances from the 108 service were available, while the party had 7. Around 33 others were pulled in from nearby districts and private hospitals when the situation worsened. The rescue operations continued till 9:45 pm, he said.
Based on previous rallies of Vijay, the police estimated a crowd of 20,000 and deployed 500 cops, Devasirvatham said. TVK had projected a crowd of only 10,000 in their official letter to the police seeking permission.