Mulayam Singh Yadav praises Azam Khan for 'managing' Kumbh

13 February, 2013

Samajwadi Party Chief Mulayam Singh Yadav has praised the former head of the Kumbh Mela management committee Azam Khan who resigned from his post after the fatal stampede at Allahabad Railway station Sunday claimed 36 lives.

While taking responsibility of what had happened at Kumbh Mela, the Urban Development Minister, Azam Khan may have given up his post of Mela Committee head, but the SP chief today was all praises for him and the way he managed the show.

Just a day after Khan's resignation, SP Chief said that he has done a commendable job in organising Kumbh, and his contribution can’t be ignored. Saying that unfortunate accidents happen sometimes, Yadav said it is better not to go into the blame game and look out for the solution of the problems.

“Arrangements in Kumbh by Azam Khan are very appreciable but this unfortunate accident happened and in this situation we all are very sad and we together should give condolences to the victims' families. Who is responsible for this and who is not will only come out after the investigation but we now we can’t ignore his contribution in making Kumbh a success,” Yadav was quoted as saying by NNIS.

The stampede occurred on 10th February around 7 pm at platform number 5 and 6 at Allahabad station. Several media reports blamed police lathicharge for the stampede.

Various political parties started blaming SP goverment and railways. But railways clearly said that it is not their responsibility to manage crowd but only to ferry passengers to their destination. “People should realise that Railways are not supposed to manage crowds. Its duty is to ferry people to their destinations,” Railways Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal said.