Haridwar stampede: Pushkar Singh Dhami directs to form a high-level committee for crowd management at Uttarakhand shrines

A day after eight pilgrims died and around 30 got injured in a stampede at Haridwar’s Mansa Devi temple, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami on Monday (July 28, 2025) instructed the officials to form a high-level committee to chalk out plan for effective crowd at religious places across the State.

In a meeting held at State Secretariat, Mr Dhami aid that crowd management at important shrines must include registration of the devotee. He also directed the officials to widen the footpaths and stairs at the temples which are on a height. The CM also asked officials to keep a check on encroachments around religious sites and availability of all other basic facilities for the pilgrims.

Taking example of huge crowd which is gathering at Mansa Devi – Chandi Devi Temple in Haridwar, Purnagiri Dham in Tanakpur, Kainchi Dham in Nainital, Jageshwar Temple in Almora, Neelkanth Mahadev Temple in Pauri, the CM said that the high-level committee should be constituted under the chairmanship of the Commissioners of both the divisions, Garhwal and Kumaon.

“District Magistrates of the respective districts, Senior Superintendents of Police, Vice Presidents of Development Authorities, and representatives of implementing agencies should be included as members in this committee which will chalk out effective crowd management plan so that incidents like that of July 27 can be avoided in future,” he said.

The Chief Minister also stressed that the committee must work on minute details like studying the carrying capacity of the shrines and even nearby areas.

“Registration of devotees should be made mandatory and a phased arrangement should be ensured by controlling the number of devotees visiting, so that the crowd remains under control and the devotees do not face any kind of inconvenience,” the CM said.