Hathras stampede: A day after a devastating stampede in Hathras resulted in the tragic loss of 121 lives, Uttar Pradesh minister Asim Arun on Wednesday announced that the state government has initiated the work to lay out Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for authorising large gatherings. This measure aims to prevent such tragic incidents from occurring in the future. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has directed officials to draft these SOPs, emphasising that event permissions will be granted only if the fundamental requirements for amenities are met, the minister said. Asim Arun, serving as the Minister of State for Social Welfare, is also a member of a three-minister committee appointed by Chief Minister Adityanath to oversee the relief efforts following the stampede.
What the minister said?
Explaining how the tragedy unfolded, he said, "It appears sevadars (volunteers) who were managing things inside did something wrong in terms of crowd management and that is another lesson learnt." "We should not leave it to sevadars or volunteers. They do a great job, of course, but the police and magistrates are more experienced," he said.
So, the chief minister has decided that the state will have a more detailed SOP now for any such gathering, whether it has 1,000 or one lakh people, the minister told the media.
"It's not just this, it's about civic amenities as well, like how many toilets are required for 80,000 people or how many water tankers should be there and how many escape points should be there," Arun said. "So, he (CM) has instructed us to make a detailed SOP and all future permissions would be granted only if these amenities are taken care of either by the organisers themselves or by a government agency," he added.
Minister on negligence at satsang
On the negligence on the part of organisers of Tuesday's satsang, the minister said there were quite a few. There was inadequate space for parking and hence a large number of buses were parked on the national highway, he added. "There should be multiple entry and exit routes and I believe they were only two routes as far as I have seen. So, the organisers could certainly have done better," the minister added.
FIR lodged against event's organisers
Following the tragic stampede, the Hathras police have registered an FIR naming the event organisers as accused. Both the FIR and a preliminary report submitted by the Sub-Divisional Magistrate to the District Magistrate highlighted that the crowd at the venue surged to over 2.50 lakh, significantly exceeding the permitted limit of 80,000. On Wednesday, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath also visited Hathras to meet with the injured and the families of some of the deceased. He also ordered a judicial inquiry into the incident, to be conducted by a retired high court judge.
(With PTI inputs)
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