- Tuesday, March 04, 2025
Fisheries minister Sanjay Nishad said, “In such a big event and when there is such a huge crowd, minor incidents do happen”
By: India Weekly
UTTAR PRADESH minister Sanjay Nishad on Wednesday expressed grief over the stampede in Mahakumbh Nagar and said “minor incidents” do happen in “such a big event”.
Nishad is the chief of the Nishad party and fisheries minister in the Yogi Adityanath government.
“In such a big event and when there is such a huge crowd, minor incidents do happen,” he said while calling it sad.
He said chief minister Adityanath is looking into this matter. One should take a bath wherever one finds space and one should not believe in rumours, he added.
Asked about Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav’s allegation of mismanagement in Maha Kumbh, he said, he would not want to comment on it.
“The arrangements that have been made and the crowd that is there will not be anywhere else in the world. Where such big arrangements are made and such a huge crowd gathers, some small incidents take place somewhere or the other,” he said.
“This incident is sad for us and I want this not to happen in the future. We people and the entire government are alert,” he said.
The stampede took place in Mahakumbh Nagar in which 30 people died and 60 suffered injuries.
Opposition slams organisers
The opposition on Wednesday hit out at the Centre and the Uttar Pradesh government over the Maha Kumbh stampede, with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi saying that mismanagement and the administration’s special focus on VIP movement were responsible for the tragic incident.
Gandhi also said “VIP culture” should be reined in and the government should make better arrangements to fulfil the needs of common devotees at the Maha Kumbh in Prayagraj.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said “half-baked arrangements, VIP movement, paying more attention to self-promotion and mismanagement are responsible for this”. Such arrangements despite spending thousands of crores of rupees are condemnable, he said.
Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav demanded that the management of the world’s largest religious event should be immediately handed over to the army.
Yadav also said that those who claimed “world-class arrangements” in the Maha Kumbh should resign from their posts taking moral responsibility for the stampede.
“In order to re-establish faith in the system among the saint community and devotees who have come to the Maha Kumbh, it is necessary that the administration and management of the Maha Kumbh should be immediately handed over to the army instead of the UP government,” he said on X.
“Now that the truth of the claims of making world class arrangements has come out in front of everyone, those who were claiming and spreading false propaganda about it should resign from their posts taking moral responsibility for the people killed in this accident,” he said.
BSP supremo Mayawati said the incident was saddening and worrisome.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee offered her condolences to the bereaved families.
Banerjee in a post on X emphasised the need of “maximal planning and care” to handle huge assemblies such as the Kumbh, citing her experiences of organising the annual Gangasagar Mela in West Bengal .
Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren also offered his condolences to pilgrims who lost their family members in the stampede.
Soren hoped that the Union government would investigate the incident thoroughly and take necessary steps to prevent such accidents in the future.
“We all must learn from such tragedies and ensure proper safety arrangements in the future so that such incidents do not happen again,” he said
The Shiv Sena (UBT) sought to know who was responsible for the stampede and claimed that the closure of certain parts of the riverbank for visits by ministers leads to such situations.
A day should be reserved for visits by VIPs, said party’s Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Raut, adding that more than ₹100 billion (£931.29m) have been spent for the management of Maha Kumbh at Prayagraj.
“Where did the money go? The BJP has been doing political campaigning through the Kumbh. It wants to market the Kumbh and contest polls. This is not their faith but politics, and people lose their lives,” Raut said, alleging that the deaths in the early morning stampede were a “murder by the state administration”. (PTI)
