Frantic relatives on Monday mobbed officials, seeking information about victims of yesterday’s stampede, which has claimed 36 lives even as the railways had a tough time dealing with the rush of 30 million Kumbh devotees thronging the city.
There were chaotic scenes at the railway station and local hospitals here treating the 39 injured in the tragedy with relatives running from pillar to post to get information about their near and dear ones.
North Central Railways said a probe will be initiated after clearing the rush of pilgrims. “A probe will follow once we are through with ferrying pilgrims back to the places they had arrived from”, Alok Johri, General Manager of the North Central Railway zone, said.
CMO Allahabad Dr Prabhakar said 14 more people died during treatment, taking the death toll to 36. The victims include 26 women, nine men and a child. Bodies of 20 of the deceased have been identified.
Taking moral responsibility for the stampede, Cabinet Minister Mohammad Azam Khan resigned as the in-charge of the Mela.
“Though the incident took place outside the Kumbh Mela premises, I take moral responsibility and resign as the in-charge of the Kumbh. I am sending my resignation to Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav”, Khan told reporters in Lucknow.
The stampede occurred at 7 pm yesterday at Platforms No 5 and 6 of the Allahabad Railway Station, where thousands of passengers, mostly Maha Kumbh devotees returning after taking the holy dip at the Sangam on the occasion of Mauni Amavasya, had gathered to board a train.
At the Swaroop Rani Nehru Hospital where some 25 injured persons are admitted, some of them in a critical condition, Divisional Commissioner of Allahabad Devesh Chaturvedi and S P Singh, Principal of Motilal Nehru Medical College to which the hospital is attached, were mobbed by people angry over “lack of proper care and facilities”.
