Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Tuesday accused the Bharatiya Janata Party government of hiding the actual toll from the stampede that occurred at the Maha Kumbh Mela pilgrimage site in Uttar Pradesh’s Prayagraj on January 29.

Officials have said that 30 persons were killed and 60 others were injured at the site. However, several media reports have suggested that the actual toll could be significantly higher.

In the Lok Sabha, Yadav called for the official data on the casualties in the stampede to be released.

“While the government is continuously giving Budget figures, please also give the figures of those who died in Maha Kumbh,” Yadav said during a debate on the Motion of Thanks to the president’s address.

Yadav added: “The figures for the deaths in the Maha Kumbh accident, treatment of injured, availability of medicines, doctors, food, water, transport should be presented in Parliament.”

He demanded “strict punitive action” against those responsible for the stampede and said that the persons “who have hidden the truth” must be punished. “We ask the double-engine government, if there was no guilt, then why were the figures suppressed, hidden and erased?” he asked.

The former Uttar Pradesh chief minister demanded an all-party meeting for the government to provide a clarification about the arrangements made for the Maha Kumbh. “The responsibility of Maha Kumbh disaster management and lost and found centre should be given to the Army,” he said.

On Monday, the Opposition shouted slogans and protested in both Houses of Parliament, demanding a discussion on the stampede.

Samajwadi Party leaders have repeatedly claimed that hundreds of persons went missing following the stampede. Party MP Ram Gopal claimed that while 15,000 families had reported missing relatives, the government had not provided any information, ANI reported.

The stampede broke out between 1 am and 2 am on January 29 as a large number of pilgrims arrived to take a holy bath on the occasion of Mauni Amavasya, a spiritually significant day in the Hindu calendar.

The administration had not provided an official toll till nearly 15 hours after the accident. However, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had expressed his condolences to “the devotees who have lost their loved ones”, even as a senior police official had claimed that no stampede had taken place.

The Maha Kumbh Mela began on January 13 and will end on February 26.

Also read: