Chennai, April 22nd 2008: Oneness Temple consecration ceremony commenced today at the Golden City near Tada (vardarajaihpalem) with over 6 lakhs people visiting the temple on day one (today); while the temple organizers expected about 10 Lakh people to visit the Temple over the next 7 days.
The overwhelming response (with over 6 lakhs people visiting the temple today) has caused the organizers to temporarily stop the function keeping in mind the safety of the visiting people to the site, because today the unexpected crowd surge resulted in damage to the barricades and other structures which leads to the main Temple structure
The organizers have taken the extreme precaution of calling off the function and are informing all concerned about the postponement of the consecration ceremony till further notice.
The organizers through this announcement wants to reach out to the millions of followers of the Oneness Movement who had been intimated of the function not to come to the temple from today till further information from the organizers; we will get back with alternate arrangement to continue the function shortly
There is no confirmation of any kind of causalities through any reliable sources at the Temple site.
For Any further clarifications:
Ramasubramaniyan @ 098840 14765
Ajay Padmanabahan @ 098403 98904
Dhananjay Kulkarni @ 098862 22271
http://www.onenessguests.com/ConsecrationFunctionCalledOff.htm
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Local News source
A forest range officer, Srinivasa Rao, 48, of Jangareddygudem in West Godavari district, Govindaiah, 63, of Vijayanagaram, and Subramanyam Satirlingam, 58, from Jaffna in Sri Lanka, were killed in the stampede. Several people were seriously injured and have been admitted at the government hospital at Tada.
The Chittoor collector, Mr M. Ravichandra, who said the Kalki ashram had been advised to avoid hosting a large number of devotees, directed the Tahsildar of the area (A Revenue Official) to the site of the incident to provide help to the injured.
Eyewitnesses said there was complete chaos ... after the massive throng of devotees who had turned up for a darshan of the couple broke a long queue and tried to find their way out. The devotees, who were made to wait for hours without water in stifling heat, panicked when they could not find any exit, leading to a melee in the temple garden near the university.
They said VIPs were given darshan immediately. Other devotees waited for a long time only to be told, at around 1 pm, that the Kalki Bhagwan and Bhagvati Amma had stopped giving darshan. The Chittoor Superintendent of Police, Mr K. Lakshmi Reddy, said several devotees suffered sunstroke because the ashram management did not supply drinking water to them.
The Varadayapalem Inspector, Mr Venkata Narayana, ruled out the possibility of more casualties and said the situation is under control. The police has stopped all buses from entering the ashram and the ashram authorities have decided to cut the inaugural to a one-day event.
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Stifling heat, traffic jams, lack of food/water or toilet ( sometimes even medical facilities for those who are ill) at proper times along the route or during long waits, expectation driven people entering the temple but wanting to remain there for a long time (some to meditate for hours as they wish to be healed or enlightened then and there, hoping some extra time in the Temple would help better their human conditions), the multiple languages and native tongues in India that may make uniform communication impossible in massive crowds, added to the human faults and foibles could contribute to such incidents.
Let us all pray for all those adversely impacted including the peace and comfort for those who died, their bereaved families and friends, the safety and well being all who are there now, and will be reaching there shortly!
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