THE JHARKHAND STORY NETWORK
Daltonganj, April 2: There is a need to draw hard lessons from the mammoth crowd in Sarhul celebration witnessed here in Daltonganj on Tuesday night.
It was a grand celebration, indeed, but more than that it was an exhibition of the numerical prowess of the tribals to show the Ram Bhakts of the Ramnavmi festival that the tribals are as religiously strong and robust as the Ram Bhakts.
Traffic Chaos and Safety Concerns
The Zila School ground and the road remained jam-packed for hours because of the spilling over of the Sarhul followers.
The crowd was not of only men and women. There were hundreds of bikes and dozens of tractors trolleys further making the traffic at a snarl pace.
It’s a sheer Providence that no road mishap occurred otherwise chaos would have broken out terribly.
Again tribal celebrations see more women, young and growing girls than any other celebration of any other faith.
Here too women and girls outnumbered the males.
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Inadequate Venue and Administration’s Oversight
It was an outright bad idea to allow this confluence of the sea of tribals on the Zila School ground.
The size of the Zila School ground fell terribly short of the volume of the tribals.
It is worth reminding here that at the district peace committee meeting chaired by the DC Shashi Ranjan and co-chaired by the SP Reeshma Ramesan, a Sarna Samaj activist had sought permission of the Zila School ground for the confluence of the Sarhul Akhras from across the district of Palamu which was duly granted as any denial of permission of the Zila School ground could have been misconstrued as anti-tribal move on the part of the administration.
No one had thought of such ‘a sea of tribals’ here on Tuesday evening. Zila School has only one entry exit. For such a crowd this ground is unfit as in the event of any stampede control of crowd could be a gigantic failure because of the entry exit were the same.
Lack of Crowd Management and Alternative Solutions
Public announcements from the side of the administration were missing. There was no official on the mic to tell the crowd how to behave. The sounds of the DJs were too maddening where it’s equally true that public announcements could have drowned.
Housing colony ground in the town of Daltonganj could be a good choice for the confluence of the Sarhul Akhras next time as the Zila School management must be cursing itself to have this convergence of the tribals on their ground which has destroyed its floral designs too badly.
The district education office is expected to be most discreet now as it can ill afford to have its ground open to Sarhul revellers.
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Police Efforts Praised Amid Historic Turnout
SP Reeshma Ramesan told the Jharkhand Story correspondent, “I have been told by many that the crowd this Sarhul was historically unprecedented. Huge and enormous. Our police officials did the best for the maintenance of the traffic.”
SP was too pleased to know that two print media persons joined hands with the team of the town police station led by its officer in charge Deobrat Poddar in regulating the traffic.
Reeshma Ramesan even alluded to Sir Robert Peel’s principle which reads ‘police are the public and the public are the police’. Sir Robert Peel is seen as father of the modern policing.
