Stampede incident: CM Siddaramaiah to reply in Assembly on Aug 22

Bengaluru, Aug 21 (PTI) Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah will reply to the stampede incident near Chinnaswamy stadium in the Karnataka Assembly on Friday morning.

The stampede on June 4 killed 11 people and injured many others. Several police officers were suspended, including the Bengaluru police commissioner B Dayananda.

The opposition BJP had raised the issue in the Assembly a few days ago and had demanded that the CM should apologise and resign from his position.

On Thursday, the BJP sought a reply from Siddaramaiah, to which he said he would answer on Friday morning.

Earlier, Home Minister G Parameshwara in the Assembly said, "In the stampede 11 lives were lost. We suspended police officers and got report on the stampede by the retired High Court Judge, Justice John Michael D’Cunha. But we cannot bring back the lives lost. Now what to do next? So, we brought the Crowd Management Bill." Parameswara said there was a need for a standard operating procedure to decide the facilities that should be available in crowded places. Accordingly, a draft has been prepared.

He noted that Chinnaswamy Cricket Stadium was considered one of the best stadia in the country as it absorbs all the rainwater in no time, but it has a capacity to hold only 33,000 people.

The minister said that Narendra Modi Stadium is one of the beautiful stadia in the country with a capacity of one lakh audience.

"We need one lakh plus capacity stadium. We are giving land on Tumakuru Road to the KSCA. We should have a Cricket Academy also. So the CM had performed ground breaking ceremony," he explained.

He added that the government is also coming up with Sports City at Devanahalli.

Parameshwara said the state government always maintained that it should not interfere in sports activities.

"But now we feel that the government should involve. So we have decided to bring some provisions for the activities," he added.

Noting that the matter (stampede issue) is in the court and hence it is subjudice, he refrained from speaking on it.

"We have to wait for the Court order, accordingly the government will decide," the minister said.

Leader of Opposition in Karnataka Assembly R Ashoka said Siddaramaiah and deputy CM D K Shivakumar should have replied on the issue since they were responsible for the stampede, but Parameshwara was asked to answer.

He also said the home minister did not speak who gave the permission.

Ashoka alleged that the stampede was the outcome of a 'credit war' between the CM and his deputy, but the police officers paid the price as they were suspended but were later reinstated.

"How did you go on to conduct the programme at Vidhana Soudha steps even after 11 deaths at the Chinnaswamy stadium? You committed a wrong. Government today is standing as an accused. I request you to accept it," Ashoka said.

Siddaramaiah said, "You have demanded my resignation as well as of DCM and HM. I will answer this tomorrow morning." PTI GMS GMS KH