No data on Maha Kumbh stampede maintained by central govt, says MoS Home Nityanand Rai
New Delhi, Mar 18 (PTI): Inquiry into the Maha Kumbh stampede was conducted by the Uttar Pradesh government and no data on casualties and injured victims is maintained with the central government, the Lok Sabha was informed on Tuesday.
Union Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai shared the information while replying to a question by Congress MPs KC Venugopal and Kirsan Namdeo on the number of people killed and injured in the stampede and the steps taken by the authorities to investigate the causes.
Rai said "public order" and "police" were state subjects, according to the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution.
Organisation of religious congregations, crowd management, provision of amenities to devotees, prevention of any type of disaster during congregations, etc are closely linked to "public order", which is a state subject, he added.
"Conducting of any type of inquiry into any type of disasters occurred in a state, including stampedes, and provision of financial assistance to families of deceased devotees and injured persons, also come under the purview of the concerned state governments. State governments are competent to deal with such situations. No such data is maintained centrally," he said in a written reply.
The Union minister said the National Disaster Management Authority had circulated detailed guidelines on crowd management at events and venues of mass gathering. Guidelines on crowd control were also issued by the Bureau of Police Research and Development.
He said the Union home ministry had issued an advisory to all states and Union territories, advising them to use these templates to prepare their own standard operating procedures for crowd management and devise a checklist for the appropriate authorities.
Uttar Pradesh Deputy Inspector General of Police Vaibhav Krishna had said the stampede January 29 stampede during the Maha Kumbh in Prayagraj left 30 pilgrims dead and 60 injured.
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Drug peddler's property worth Rs 1 crore attached in Srinagar
Srinagar (PTI): Property worth Rs 1 crore belonging to a notorious drug peddler was on Saturday attached in Jammu and Kashmir's Srinagar, police said.
A double-storey house on eight marlas of land situated at Wantpora Eidgah, belonging to Basit Bilal Dar, a notorious drug peddler, valued at approximately Rs 1 crore, a police spokesperson said.
He said Dar is involved in two cases registered under various sections of the NDPS Act.
During investigation, it was established that the accused had acquired the said property through illicit proceeds generated from drug trafficking activities, the spokesperson said.
Consequently, the property was attached under the provisions of the NDPS Act. The attachment proceedings were conducted in the presence of the two independent witnesses, strictly in accordance with the prescribed legal procedures, he said.
As per the attachment order, the owner has been restrained from selling, leasing, transferring, altering, or creating any third-party interest in the property till further orders, the spokesperson added.
