HM, 4 other ministers visit bereaved families

 Tirupati: Home minister Vangalapudi Anitha on Thursday visited the bereaved families of the six stam-pede victims at Ruia mortuary and consoled them. The ministers, including district in-charge minister Anagani Satya Prasad, endowments minister Anam Ramanarayana Reddy, Kolusu Parthasarathy and Nimmala Chinnarajappa assured all support to the bereaved families. They also visited the injured undergoing treatment in SVIMS Padmavati General Hospital.

Later, speaking to the media, they said the stampede and death of six devotees is unfortunate and affirmed that the government will take all required measures to avoid such tragedy in fu-ture.

Home minister Anitha said CM had already announced a judicial inquiry into the stampede that claimed six lives and resulting in injuries to 55 and added that based on the inquiry report, action will be taken on all those found responsible for the incident.

Health minister Y Satya Kumar Yadav said it was unfortunate that opposition parties were try-ing to attack the government for the incident and wanted them to stop the blame game as the government had already taken remedial measures.

Endowments minister Ramanarayana Reddy who was entrusted by the CM Naidu with the task of providing relief to the stampede victims and proper treatment to the injured in the hospital, said the government is keen on taking up required measures to avoid such measures.

He said the CM himself personally visited the stampede victims’ families, announced Rs 25 lakh as ex gratia to each of the bereaved families and judicial inquiry revealing that the gov-ernment is very prompt in taking remedial measures.

City MLA Arani Srinivasulu also visited stampede victims’ families and personally conveyed his condolences to the bereaved families. The MLA said the incident was unexpected and took place due to the devotees waiting for the issuing of the tokens at a time all of them rushed leading to the stampede. As such, it is not to blame anyone, he said, adding that the govern-ment and TTD had already taken remedial measures. He assumed all help to the affected families.

Meanwhile, police and officials were on their toes in ensuring bandobasth at SVIMS Padmava-thi General Hospital and Ruia with the ministers visiting the victims’ families and the injured undergoing treatment.