Varanasi stampede: Keshav Prasad Maurya targets Akhilesh govt

VARANASI: Holding the district administration responsible for the stampede that claimed 25 lives, the BJP state president Keshav Prasad Maurya accused the administration of not taking action against the organisers due to the closeness of Pankaj Maharaj with UP minister Shivpal Singh Yadav.
“Pankaj Baba is known for his closeness to chief minister Akhilesh Yadav’s uncle Shivpal Singh Yadav due to which the government is not taking any concrete action.The CM is worrying about the next budget, when Varanasi witnessed such a big tragedy,” said Maurya, who was here on Sunday to see the injured persons at the BHU trauma centre. He further said that it is the fear of Shivpal Yadav that the district administration is taking no action.
The Union minister of labour and employment Bandaru Dattatreya also went to trauma centre and met the injured persons. Dattatreya, holding negligence of state government responsible for the deaths in stampede, said that a high-level probe should be instituted to investigate the matter.
He said that he will apprise Union home minister Rajnath Singh of the situation. The Congress leaders, including the UP chief ministerial candidate Sheila Dixit and state president Raj Babbar, are arriving here on Monday to see the injured persons.
Union minister of state for HRD Mahendra Nath Pandey and UP Tourism Minister Om Prakash Singh already met the injured persons on Saturday.