The Wire Staff 
New Delhi: The Union home ministry on Tuesday said that it did not maintain information on stampede deaths and injuries at the Maha Kumbh mela.
Junior home minister Nityanand Rai, while responding to a question on casualties at the mela, said that religious congregations and crowd management at such events was related to maintaining ‘public order’, which is a state subject.
“Conducting of any type of inquiry into any type of disasters occurring 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. The state governments are competent to deal with such situations. No such data is maintained centrally,” Rai said.
Congress MPs K.C. Venugopal and Kirsan Namdeo had asked for the number of fatalities and those who were injured in the stampedes. They had also asked for the steps taken to investigate the cause of the tragedy, details of a judicial inquiry to find out who was responsible for it and if any assistance was provided to the victims and their kin. The question also included if any steps had been taken check recurrence of such incidents.
Rai said that both the National Disaster Management Authority and Bureau of Police Research and Development had issued guidelines on crowd management that should be used by state governments to develop their own mechanisms.
“The ministry of home affairs has issued an advisory to all states/Union Territories advising them to use these templates to prepare their own standard operating procedures (SOPs) and devise a checklist for appropriate authorities,” Rai said.