The death toll in the stampede at Allahabad railway station reached 36 today, with 14 more people succumbing to their injuries.
CMO Allahabad Dr Prabhakar confirmed the toll, saying 14 more people died during treatment.
Many injured are being treated at the railway hospitals and the SRN Hospital here, he said.
The victims include 26 women, 9 men and a child, official sources said, adding bodies of 20 of the deceased have been identified.
The stampede occurred at 7 PM yesterday at Platforms No 5 and 6 where thousands of passengers, mostly Maha Kumbh devotees returning after taking the holy dip at the Sangam, had gathered to board a train.
Several eyewitnesses said there was a lathicharge by the police that compounded the panic but Divisional Railway Manager Harinder Rao claimed passengers were not baton charged and that police only attempted to regulate the movement of the crowd at the platforms by asking passengers to stand in line.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had condoled the loss of lives in the tragedy and instructed Railway Ministry to provide all possible assistance.
Singh also directed Central Government departments to extend all possible help to Uttar Pradesh Government in relief operations.
The UP Government ordered an inquiry into the stampede and asked the Railways to make proper arrangements to clear rush of devotees and sanctioned an ex-gratia of Rs five lakh to the kin of each of the dead persons.
Keywords: Death toll, stampede at Allahabad railway station, Maha Kumbh mela pilgrims death, CMO Allahabad Dr Prabhakar, Divisional Railway Manager Harinder Rao, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Central Government departments, Uttar Pradesh Government,
Comments:
police create tragedies.police are the worlds worst criminals.
This is a major setback for the world's major event. I have only suggestions to avoid any future mishap under similar circumstances.
1. All reservations by train must be suspended and instead all unreserved sitting coaches should be provided for all trains. This will maximise the number of people travelling. Entry to these trains should be through clearly identifiable large tokens issued from holding areas at Mela site and regulated at the entrances. To avoid overcrowding at entrances people should be sent to holding areas built specifically. This will be similar to Tirupati temple for Balaji in Tirumala where the queue system is excellent.
2. No one should be allowed to enter platform until only people with tokens for specific train on the platform board the train and the train leaves the platform.
3. Temporary holding areas should be built in Kumbh Mela site by railways where tokens should be provided along with free transport by bus to the station at specified times. These holding areas should have similar facilities for food and toilets.Thius will avoid overcrowding at the station.
4. Each and every coach of the train should have police/railway personnel in full uniform (similar to Chinese trains- some lessons could be learnt from them as well on their New Year travel congestion)
4. Railways are run by central government that has enormous resources such as CRPF that could be deployed.
5. Senior railway officers from commercial department must also be present in each platform and in uniform (no harm in giving them smart uniform) and they should feel proud to wear. This could include even general manager.
6. To avoid congestion at only one station, other stations nearby on the line could also be utilised thereby dispersing the crowd with trains originating.
7. Doctors and other medical staff should be posted on each platform drawn from the entire state. If teachers and other government staff can be posted at polling booths during election why not doctors on important events like these? The team of doctors should have the power to treat any medico legal case and with full complement of emergency care and medicines.
8. India has several voluntary agencies such as Rotary/lions/Round Table/Jaycees who could also be utilised with proper incentives.
One more incident of mass death. In a country where lives are in plenty, losing a few will not matter. We seem to be losing millions of lives every year by way of road accidents and accidents like this reported today. However, since we are a hundred crores in number and the majority of such deaths is that of common people, we will not attempt to strengthen our systems to prevent accidents. This is our chalta hai attitude. I can easily predict the action steps after the next such accident viz., condemnation by politicians, solatium of 1- 5 lacs announced for each death and an enquiry commission. We will go on like this forever. pissed off...
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