NEW DELHI: The home ministry Tuesday declined to share data on the fatalities and injured victims in the stampede at Maha Kumbh mela in Prayagraj, saying that such data is not maintained by the central government.
Junior home minister Nityanand Rai, in reply to a question in Lok Sabha, shared that the organisation of religious congregations, crowd management, provision of amenities to devotees, prevention of any type of disaster during the congregation, etc, are closely linked to ‘public order’, which is a ‘state’ subject as per the Constitution.
“Conducting of any type of inquiry into any type of disasters occurring in a state, including stampedes, and provision of financial assistance to families of deceased devotees and injured persons, also come under the purview of the concerned state governments. The state governments are competent to deal with such situations. No such data is maintained centrally,” Rai informed the House.
The question relating to casualties in Maha Kumbh was submitted by Congress MPs K C Venugopal and Kirsan Namdeo. They had sought to know the number of persons killed and injured, steps taken by authorities to probe causes of the stampede, details of the judicial inquiry or any other investigation initiated to fix responsibility, whether any assistance was provided to the victims or their kin; and the concrete steps taken to check recurrence of such incidents.
Rai replied that both NDMA and BPRD had issued guidelines on crowd management/control at events and venues of mass gathering. “The ministry of home affairs has issued an advisory to all states/Union Territories advising them to use these templates to prepare their own standard operating procedures (SOPs) and devise a checklist for appropriate authorities,” he said.