Many devotees and police personnel on Friday suffered injuries at the laddu prasadam distribution centre of the Khairatabad Ganesh pandal location.
The organizers of Khairatabad Maha Ganapati puja distributed the laddu weighing 6,000 kg among the devotees on Friday. When the program started, thousands of devotees rushed towards the laddu distribution center leading to crowding and pushing. Police had a tough task controlling the devotees' rush. With thousands surging towards the distribution centre, the barricades were broken resulting in injuries to many.
ACP Surender Reddy and DCP Kamalasan Reddy rushed to the place along with additional forces, which controlled the rush by caning the mobs.
Speaking on the occasion, Kamalasan Reddy said that the police would not compromise where public lives were concerned, and that was the reason that they resorted to caning and stopped the distribution of the laddu prasadam.
He said that steps would be taken to send the laddu prasadam to various temples in the city for distribution among the devotees. He also said that the police would not allow the organizers to organize laddu prasadam distributions from the next year.
Many devotees expressed their anger at the organizers for their failure to make adequate arrangements.