There is absolutely no denying the fact that Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu is regarded as the “crisis man” of the Telugu states. Whenever there is a natural calamity or a fatal incident, the way veteran Babu steps in, takes charge, and gets on the ground to resolve the situation is commendable.
While Chandrababu has historically been successful in handling high-pressure disaster situations, there is a growing demand on his government to start taking more proactive and precautionary measures as well.
The recent Tirumala Tirupati ticket stampede incident, followed by the Simhachalam wall collapse, are to be termed man-made calamities. These are precisely the kind of preventable events that the NDA government must monitor and curb.
In the case of the Tirupati stampede, it was clearly a failure of the officials. Poor planning and lack of adequate monitoring during the auspicious Vaikunta Ekadasi period resulted in multiple deaths in the holy town of Tirupati.
The Simhachalam incident is even more shocking. A 20-foot wall was reportedly constructed without any foundation—an obvious structural hazard. It was only a matter of time before it collapsed, which it did yesterday, tragically killing eight people.
All these incidents are essentially man-made disasters, and the blame falls on the concerned officials. Better planning and adequate monitoring could have saved lives in both situations.
While the chief minister and the government cannot be directly blamed for every individual failure, public perception often reflects poorly on leadership when such tragedies occur.
It is worth noting that Chandrababu cannot be faulted for his response. During the recent Vijayawada floods, he was on the ground for nearly a week, managing the situation with urgency. Similarly, after the Tirupati stampede and now the Simhachalam tragedy, the government was quick to announce compensation and take recovery measures.
The public now appreciates that Chandrababu excels in post-calamity response. But what’s needed most right now are strong precautionary steps to prevent such tragedies from occurring in the first place.
Experts believe that the Chief Minister must focus on endowments and R&B (Roads & Buildings) departments to improve public infrastructure. Given Chandrababu’s self-assessing and action-driven nature, we can expect some key decisions in this direction soon.
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