Justice Somayajulu Commission of Inquiry which was constituted to go into the Godavari Pushkarams tragedy in 2015 in which over 25 people lost their lives, came to the conclusion that a sudden stampede at the auspicious moment was the root cause of the mishap.

The commission also held excessive publicity of the event as one of the principal causes.

It may be recalled that the Andhra Pradesh government itself had publicised the event extensively as this TV advertisement reveals.

It appears as if the honourable justice stated that a mass gathering of individuals at the Pushkarams site caused the stampede which led to the tragedy. A simple question which should have logically crossed his mind is why didn't the government make required arrangements for an event of this scale which itself had publicised? It is also widely known that Pushkarams occupy a very special place in the Hindu tradition and that the 2015 event occurred after 144 years and therefore holds great spiritual significance for the pilgrims.

The commission further said that nowehere was it stated that the holy dp in the pushkarams should be taken up at one particular place on an assigned date at a given time. It added that the media built up hype around the event and also misled the state government. Giving Chandrababu Naidu a clean chit in the manner, Justice Somayajulu said that the stampede took place after the chief minister had left. The commission attributed political motives to parties for making allegations on this issue.

The commission which watched videos made by National Geographic channel blamed, political parties out of power and Opposition for targetting the government on this issue. Oddly enough, the commission felt that a number of people attempted to place chief minister Chandrababu Naidu in the dock.

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