Ongole, January 17: A pall of gloom descended on Hariprasad Nagar in Ward No.2 of Chirala as the families of Ayyappa devotees who lost their lives in the Vandiperiyar stampede waited for the bodies.
As the five members died and two other seriously injured from this colony alone, relatives and friends arriving in large numbers to condole the bereaved family members.
According to information, dozens of poor people had migrated from Srikakulam district to Chirala in the district for livelihood and were engaged in various vocations.
They had all been living like a community in Hariprasad Nagar. But the Vandiperiyar stampede in Idukki district of Kerala on the way to Sabarimala proved a grave loss to the community.
Five of the 38 members who had gone to Sabarimala by a lorry lost their lives and two others suffered serious injurious in the stampede.
The injured, V Adinarayana and V Nagaraju, are undergoing treatment at a hospital in Kerala.
P Suryanarayana (60) and his son P Rambabu (40) died in the stampede and both were working as construction workers in Chirala town.
As both the bread-winners lost their lives the families are in doldrums now. Nagu Ganesh (30) and Nagu Raju (30), both cousins and hailing from the same locality, also died in the stampede.
Kotha Govind (28), a hotel server from the same locality, also lost his life in the stampede.
Two other devotees from Sivapuram village in Talluru mandal _ Venkata Rao and Srinivasa Rao _ went missing.
Municipal administration minister M Mahidar Reddy and district collector Kanthilal Dande visited Chirala town assured the bereaved families of government support.
Besides the compensation all the bereaved family members would be provided with housing and covered byr all the welfare schemes initiated by the state and union governments, Reddy said.
–Agencies