Allahabad stampede toll 36; Both UP govt, railways order probes, ex-gratia hiked

Allahabad/Lucknow/Delhi, Feb 11: Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal and the UP government today ordered separate probes to ascertain the exact cause behind the stampede at Allahabad railway station on Sunday evening, that took a toll of 36 Kumbh Mela pilgrims returning home.Bansal ordered a high-level inquiry headed by Additional Member (Traffic) of Railway Board Devi Prasad Pandey, while the UP government ordered a probe by a committee headed by the Revenue Board chairman. The committee will submit its report within a month.Eyewitnesses said, the stampede was caused by a sudden announcement of change in platform for a train for which a huge crowd was waiting at Platform No 5 and started rushing towards Platform No 1 from the foot overbridge. During the rush of pilgrims, a woman tried to retrieve something which fell on the overbridge, and the crowd walked over her, pushing and shoving, with women and children bearing the brunt of the stampede.UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav announced a hike in ex-gratia to the next of kin of those killed from Rs 5 lakh to Rs 7 lakh, and for injured pilgrims the ex-gratia was doubled from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 2 lakh. Railway Minister P K Bansal, on his part, announced an ex-gratia of Rs 1 lakh to the next of kin of those killed, Rs 50,000 for those seriously injured and Rs 25,000 each for those with minor injuries.Bansal blamed the tragedy on tardy crowd management by the local administration.“All those who have come from far-off places and wish to take their injured family members back to their homes will be provided free AC 2 tier tickets,” Bansal said.Bansal said “prima facie, the stampede appears to be a result of people entering the station both through the city side as well as the Civil Lines side.”“This was contrary to the plan the Railways had made in consultation with the local administration according to which crowds had to be directed only through the city side and the Civil Lines side was to be made accessible in the case of emergency with prior information to Railway officials,” Bansal said.“People should realise that Railways is not supposed to manage crowds. Its duty is to ferry people to their destinations,” he said.“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.Firmly denying allegations of baton-charge by RPF men, which has been blamed by many eye-witnesses for the stampede, Bansal said “there are more than 50 CCTV cameras installed in every corner of the station.”“I am sure the inquiry, which will involve examining the footages, will establish beyond doubt that no pilgrims were manhandled.“If there has been any lapse on part of the Railway officials, it will come to light in the inquiry,” the minister said.“But at this moment our primary concern is to ensure that the rest of the 55-day Kumbh congregation goes off without any such tragedy,” he said.Earlier, Bansal visited various hospitals in the city where 39 people are undergoing treatment for injuries suffered in the stampede.The Railway minister said “only three of them are in a critical condition.”UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav will fly to Allahabad on Tuesday to meet the injured and the next of kin of those killed in the stampede.Senior UP minister Balram Singh Yadav said in Allahabad that the state government has arranged buses for sending the stranded pilgrims to their destinations.Giving break-up, Balram Singh Yadav said, of those 36 killed, 29 were women and seven males. 39 others were injured, out of which three were in critical condition. Thirty-three injured pilgrims have been admitted to Swarooprani Hospital, five in J N Sapru Hospital, and one in Motilal Nehru Hospital. 14 bodies are yet to be identified, while post-mortem on 22 bodies have been completed. 19 bodies have been sent to their destinations. Meanwhile, Azam Khan, state PWD minister sent in his resignation from the post of in-charge Kumbh Mela to the chief minister accepting moral responsibility for the stampede.