“Those supposed to take care of the crowd management could not do so and the tragedy occurred,” Bansal said.
Asked whether he was blaming the stampede on the district administration,Bansal replied “I have not come here to trade charges. I have not come here to do politics.”
Defending Railways' preparedness for the Mauni Amavasya festival which saw three crore pilgrims taking holy dip in the Sangam, Bansal said the Railways had been running a total of 220 special trains during February 10-13 from various stations inside and outside the city.
“Even today, we have cancelled as many as four trains scheduled to run on other routes and are pressing them into service for ferrying stranded passengers to their homes,” he said.
It will not be fair to expect the Railways to arrange for the travel of three crore people if they happened to converge at one place in one day, Bansal said.
“There was no fault with the strategy and preparations. We are not even complaining that more people wanted to travel by trains than they were supposed to.
“At this stage, it can only be said that the rush of passengers from two opposite sides caused the stampede which turned a festive occasion into a tragedy,” the Railway minister said.
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