15,000 people say kin missing after Mahakumbh stampede: Samajwadi MP Ram Gopal
Feb 04, 2025
New Delhi [India], February 4 : After their protest in Parliament over the Mahakumbh stampede, Samajwadi Party MP Ram Gopal Yadav said on Tuesday that 15,000 people have reported their family members have been missing since the incident and that the government is not providing any information.
Speaking to ANI, Yadav recalled that after the 1954 Prayag Kumbh Mela stampede, the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru had spoken in Parliament and given the number of people who had died and those who got injured in the tragedy.
"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.
Samajwadi Party leader said that in contrast, the current Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's administration was busy making arrangements for VIPs and not concerned about the commoners.
"But our Chief Minister is there every day, all the officers are busy there that 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.
A united opposition disrupted both houses of Parliament on Monday during the ongoing Budget Session demanding an immediate discussion on the January 29 Mahakumbh stampede claimed the lives of 30 people.
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 rush coinciding with Mouni Amawasya.
Addressing a rally in Milkipur assembly constituency in Ayodhya which will see bypoll on February 5, Yadav said the government has been releasing daily figures of the number of people who took a holy dip at the Triveni Sangam but has not yet released the list of casualties.
