MUMBAI: The timing of the Maharashtra Bhushan Award presentation at Navi Mumbai's Kharghar, where 14 people died due to sunstroke, was such that people gathered from different parts of the state could attend the event and return home before night, Cultural Affairs Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar said on Wednesday.
The award ceremony was held on April 16 under the scorching summer sun in an open ground in Kharghar and attended by several lakh people, most of them followers of social worker Appasaheb Dharmadhikari who was conferred with Maharashtra's top civilian honour by Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
The event, for which people had started gathering since morning, began around 11.30 am and went on till around 1 pm.
That day, the nearest weather station to the spot of the programme recorded a maximum temperature of 38 degrees Celsius.
In an interview to Marathi news channel ABP Majha, Mungantiwar said no one could gauge temperature will suddenly rise so much as to cause heatstroke among attendees, comments coming amid strong criticism of the Shiv Sena-BJP government over the sunstroke-linked deaths.
He said arrangements were made for 3,000 taps for attendees to drink water.
The senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader said 20 lakh to 25 lakh followers of Dharmadhikari attended the mega event.
He said adequate arrangements were made for the programme and Chief Minister Eknath Shinde visited the site four times to review preparations.
The timing for the award event was suggested by the 76-year-old social worker himself, said Mungantiwar last week.
"He (Dharmadhikari) suggested that it will be difficult for people (coming for the event) to go back during the night.
They will come in the night or early morning and then leave," the state cabinet minister said on Wednesday.
The India Meteorological Department, on a request of the Maharashtra government, had forecast that the day temperature in Kharghar could reach 34 to 35 degrees Celsius on April 16, based on data from its Santacruz observatory in suburban Mumbai, IMD officials said.
However, on ground the temperature rose to 38 degrees Celsius.
Navi Mumbai does not have an IMD observatory.
The Sena-BJP government received a lot of flak for the fatalities, with the Opposition even demanding that a case of culpable homicide be filed against the state administration.
Dharmadhikari has a massive following in the state due to his tree plantation drives, blood donation and medical camps as well as de-addiction work in tribal areas conducted under the aegis of his organisation 'Shree Sadasya'.