LUCKNOW: A day after the consecration of Ram Lalla, a huge rush of devotees, over 5 lakh, thronged the new temple on Ram Janmabhoomi premises and had a glimpse of the presiding deity as the temple gates were opened to the public in Ayodhya on Tuesday.Many devotees, who have reached Ayodhya from across the country, remained on the streets the whole night and queued up in front of the main gate at Janmabhoomi Path even before the break of dawn.However, the crowd, much bigger than expected, became unmanageable, leading to a stampede-like situation. This prompted UP CM Yogi Adityanath himself to rush to the temple and take to the public address system to appeal to the people asking them not to proceed to the temple and follow the norms spelled out by the district police administration. By the evening, the situation had come under control, and devotees were entering the temple one-by-one in queue. In the meantime, many devotees got injured or fainted due to a strong push in the crowd. Three people, one each from Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, and Bihar, got fractures and were admitted to different hospitals for medical attention.Taking cognizance of the fact that the number of devotees was swelling and becoming uncontrollable, CM Yogi rushed DGP (law and order) Prashant Kumar and Principal Secretary (Home) Sanjay Prasad to Ayodhya. Both the officers stayed put in the sanctum sanctorum to regulate the flow of devotees.Later, the CM himself took the command and appealed to the people to have patience as arrangements were made for everyone to take darshan. He also held a high-level meeting on crowd management with the senior officials of the state police and district administration.
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