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Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati may have got a tailormade report from her state government-appointed probe panel on the cause of the stampede at Lucknow railway station, which resulted in the death of 21 persons, but the question is whether she can replicate this feat at the central level.
The stampede occurred when people who had come to attend a Bahujan Samaj Party rally in Lucknow gathered at the railway station to catch trains to their native towns.
The three-member panel headed by Principal Secretary (Planning) S N Jha, which also included Divisional Railway Manager (Lucknow) Kamlesh Gupta, said the mishap was the result of mismanagement by railway authorities.
At a hurriedly convened press conference in Lucknow, state Information Secretary Rohit Nandan asserted that "The last-minute change of platform where the Sadhbhavna Express was to be stationed led to the stampede."
However, Gupta's requests for details of the statements made by witnesses were ignored.
Inquiries revealed that he had objected to the findings of unilaterally prepared report, but Jha overruled his objections and only insisted on the DRM signing on the dotted line.
Understandably, Gupta refused.
Asked to explain this major anomaly, Rohit Nandan only said, "The DRM had refused to sign the report."
While Gupta was not available for comment, a senior railway official denied the charge of mismanagement and accused the state government of trying to pass the buck for its failures in assessing the size of the crowd and in managing it.
"The state administration neither cared to apprise the railways of the magnitude of the crowd that was likely to converge on the Lucknow railway station on the fateful night, nor bothered to make adequate arrangements to regulate the movement of the crowd," he said.
The entire focus was on ensuring a sizable attendance at the rally. People converged on the venue from all parts of the state in buses, trains and other vehicles.
However, there was no arrangement to ensure an orderly dispersal of the crowd after the rally.
At the station on Saturday night, several people were heard complaining that they had been brought to the rally by their neta in buses, but were not told where to board the buses for the return journey.
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