'UP govt suppressed Maha Kumbh death toll,' says Rahul Gandhi, cites BBC report
New Delhi, Jun 11 (PTI): Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday cited a BBC report to allege that the number of people who died in stampedes during the Maha Kumbh was suppressed by the Uttar Pradesh government and accused the BJP of having no accountability.
"BBC report reveals that figures of deaths in Kumbh Mela stampede were hidden. Like in COVID, the bodies of the poor were erased from the statistics. Like after every major railway accident the truth is suppressed," he said in a post on X.
"This is the BJP model - if there is no counting of the poor, then there is no accountability either!" the Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha said.
On Tuesday, Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav cited the same media report to accuse the Uttar Pradesh government of lying about the death toll in the January 29 Maha Kumbh stampede and said that those who provide "false statistics" are not worthy of public trust.
Yadav made the remarks in a post on X, citing a BBC report which claimed that 82 people died in the stampede. The toll is significantly higher than the official figure of 37.
BBC की रिपोर्ट बताती है कि कुंभ मेले की भगदड़ में हुई मौतों के आंकड़े छुपाए गए।
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) June 11, 2025
जैसे COVID में गरीबों की लाशें आंकड़ों से मिटा दी गई थी।
जैसे हर बड़े रेल हादसे के बाद सच्चाई दबा दी जाती है।
यही तो BJP मॉडल है - गरीबों की गिनती नहीं, तो ज़िम्मेदारी भी नहीं!
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Bridge portion collapses on Jammu outskirts; 3-4 labourers feared trapped, 1 rescued
Jammu (PTI): A portion of a small bridge collapsed in the Bantalab area on the outskirts of Jammu city on Friday, trapping at least three to four labourers under the debris, while one injured worker was rescued, official sources said.
Authorities have closed the road link following the collapse of the portion of the bridge.
The incident occurred when labourers were carrying out repair work on a retaining wall near the bridge that was damaged in last year's flash floods, the sources said.
According to the sources, a section of the bridge suddenly gave way, burying workers engaged at the site under the rubble.
Police, Army and State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) teams launched rescue operations to extricate those buried under the debris. They pulled out one injured labourer and shifted him to a hospital, the sources said.
Family members of the labourers present at the site said around six workers engaged at the site at the time of the incident came under the debris when the structure collapsed. The family members said while two of the labourers managed to escape, four got trapped.
The sources said those trapped included the husband of a woman labourer, a mason, an unmarried labourer and a relative of the contractor.
There was no official confirmation on the exact number of persons trapped under the debris till the filing of this report.
The rescue operations are ongoing.
