Samajwadi Party MP Ram Gopal Yadav, who protested in Parliament regarding the Mahakumbh stampede, said on Tuesday that since the incident, 15,000 people have informed that their family members are missing and the government is not giving any information.
Speaking to the media, Yadav recalled that Jawaharlal Nehru, the prime minister at the time, had addressed Parliament following the 1954 Prayag Kumbh Mela stampede and listed the number of fatalities and injuries. “When there was a big stampede in 1954, on the very first day Jawaharlal Nehru said in the House that 400 people had died and 2000 were injured. After that, the government had said that people come in such large numbers, without giving letters, without advertising, and urged no VIPs to visit, as it may cause inconvenience to people,” Yadav said.
However, the Samajwadi Party leader claimed that the government of current Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath was preoccupied with VIP preparations and unconcerned with the needs of the general public. “But our Chief Minister is there every day, all the officers are busy there, the VIP lane should be good, and they are not concerned whether the common people who visit drown or die… 15,000 people are saying that their family members are not being found; the government is not giving any information,” the Samajwadi Party MP said.
During Monday’s ongoing Budget Session, a united opposition disrupted both chambers of Parliament, asking for a quick discussion on the January 29 Mahakumbh stampede, which lost 30 lives.
Samajwadi Party chief and former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav yesterday condemned the state government “for not releasing” the list of people who died due to the stampede in Maha Kumbh during the rush coinciding with Mouni Amawasya.
Addressing a rally in Ayodhya’s Milkipur assembly seat, which will have a by-election on February 5, Yadav stated that although the government has been publishing daily data on the number of individuals who took a holy dip at the Triveni Sangam, the list of victims has not yet been made public.
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