India Culture, Business, Sports and Food. Get all the buzz in India now

Stampede 179 people have been reported to be killed and hundreds injured in a stampede that took place in the centuries old Chamunda Devi Temple Jodhpur on Tuesday, September 30. It is the Navratra festival and thousands of devotees had gathered at the temple to pay there homage as it is was the first day of the nine days of Navratra festival and it was a holiday. This incident  is the virtual repeat of the Naina Devi  temple stampede in which 146 people had died on October 3. According to the eye witnesses the exact number of the killed people can not be confirmed as more dead bodies are being recovered from the temple and many seriously injured people have succumbed to their injuries. Injured people have been admitted in various city hospitals.

Reasons Some eyewitnesses have blamed the inadequate deployment of the police personal to manage the huge crowd of the devotees. Some people have said that the incident happened when some people pushed each other to get entry into the small premises of the temple. It resulted in the stampede. According to some eyewitnesses some devotees slipped on the steep temple path which causes the stampede. According to another theory a temple wall fell on the devotees which caused panic among the devotees and caused stampede. Most of the dead are males as the stampede took place in the separate men’s queues. According to the state officials only 15 to 20 people had died at the spot while the others succumbed to their injuries in various city hospitals. People died because of suffocation. Most of the dead were young people.

Temple Chamunda Devi Temple is situated atop Mehrangarh fort in Jodhpur. It was built by Maharajah of Jodhpur, Gaj Singh in the 15^th century. During the Navratra festival devotees can go to the temple everyday. This temple is run by Mehrangarh Museum Trust of Maharaj Gaj Singh. The tragedy happened very early in the morning and the local administration was not aware about the incident for some time and it also took time to provide first aid and ambulance services to the injured. Most of the victims were carried physically as there were very few vehicles. Two km long narrow and steep way had also made it impossible to drive a vehicle to the temple.

Agreement India and France on Tuesday finalized the agreement on civil nuclear cooperation which involves supply of reactors and the atomic fuel. Initiation of the agreement will mark the end of India’s 34 years old nuclear isolation. And with it both the nations will start a new inning of bilateral relations and cooperation. It will include full nuclear cooperation, and nuclear safety. France will be the first country with whom India will enter into nuclear trade after getting the NSG waiver. According to the Indian officials Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will sign three agreements during his visit to Paris. One is the nuclear agreement and the others two are related to social security matters.

Visit Earlier it was being expected that India will sign the civilian nuclear cooperation agreement with US during On September 25 during Indian PM’s visit to Washington. But because of financial melt down Congress could not approve the agreement before September 25. Later on House of Representatives had passed it and it is now in its final phase. With the approval of Senate both the nations will enter into the civilian nuclear cooperation. Bush administration is confident that Senate will clear the legislation on the US-India civilian nuclear deal on Wednesday.

Meeting Indian Prime Minister had attended the ninth India-European Union summit held in Marseille on September 29. Summit was attended by PM Manmohan Singh, President Nicolas Sarkozy and Jose Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission. During the meeting European Union welcomed India’s emergence and the civilian nuclear cooperation. Sarkozy had hoped to announce ’some good results’ after the finalization of nuclear agreement between both of the nations in Paris on Tuesday. Indian side was completely satisfied with the outcome of the talks. Both the sides agreed to fight against the climate change. They welcomed India into the world of civilian nuclear cooperation. It is being expected that civilian nuclear agreement with India will give a big boost to the fight against global warming.

France meets its 80 % energy requirements by nuclear energy while India meets only 5% of its energy requirements by nuclear energy. With this agreement India will become able to meet its 50% energy requirements within a decade. It will be a big boost to the emerging Indian economy. It will also pave way for mutual cooperation in many other key fields such as military and technology cooperation.