at the front end of the queue slipped and others stumbled over them. The gates were closed with difficulty, but by then the stampede caused 42 deaths and 37 injuries. Eyewitness claimed that the sudden downpour resulted in chaos in the area. The police were few in number to control the large crowd. They also claimed that the police controlling the crowd early during the day would have averted the situation. Aftermath The stampede is counted among the twenty deadliest stampedes during the period of 1968–2005. The President of India, A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, condoled the death of the people who lost their lives in the tragedy. On account of the poor lighting and rain, the rescue personnel found it difficult to reach the spot. The crowd did not disperse without understanding the seriousness of the situation and only left after an announcement was made that the distribution would be made at their doors. Umbrellas, footwear and ration cards were strewn all over the place. Sixteen of the injured were admitted to the government hospital and eleven, including six women, were admitted to the Royapettah Government Hospital. The Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, J. Jayalalithaa visited the injured in the hospital. During her interaction with the media after her hospital visit, she said that this might have been the handiwork of some of the miscreants trying to tarnish the image of the government. She stated that "There was no need for people to come in so early during the day when it had been announced that relief distribution would begin from 9 am. We had made elaborate arrangement by restricting the number of relief-seekers to 500 at each of the nine counters and deployed heavy security. It was announced that everyone would get relief,". The Tamil Nadu police said that it was raining heavily during the distribution of relief supplies. The state government also announced a compensation of one lakh for all the victims and 15,000 for the injured. The leader of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) party Muthuvel Karunanidhi, accused the government of buying votes by distributing freebies for the forthcoming elections. He also added that it was the poor administration of the government that resulted in the tragedy. His son, M. K. Stalin, an MLA from the DMK party, accused the government of not setting up a committee to monitor the relief measures. As a mark of