Title - Stampede not in Railway's disaster management plan: Expert

ALLAHABAD: More than 36 persons died in the melee at Allahabad junction station on the occasion of Mauni Amavasya and an equal number are recuperating in different hospitals. Surprisingly, the disaster management plan of Indian Railways, world's largest public sector undertaking which employs the biggest workforce to ferry highest number of passengers to different parts of the country, has no room for stampede in the list of man made disasters. The above observation comes from a senior faculty member of state's NIT, Motial Nehru National Institute of Technology (MNNIT) and a disaster management expert, who analysed facts and the sequence of events that led to the stampede after perusing the Disaster Management Plan of railways.

Discussing the issue with TOI, R K Srivastava said the tragedy at Allahabad junction on Sunday was not an isolated case of stampede at railway stations. But the disaster management manual and guidelines of railways does not include stampede in the list of man-made disaster even though it has reserved space for others like accident, terrorist attack, sabotage, fire accidents, chemical and biological accidents.

Questioning how the railways could exclude stampede from it's disaster management plan when they are the most vulnerable to it, Srivastava opined it was in the backdrop of the fact that a crowd of similar magnitude collects at railways stations across the country every time the department conducts a recruitment examination round the year. During army recruitment at locations across the length and breadth of the country, it is railways that provides transport.

He said after examination of facts and information available it has become fairly evident that there was no prior analysis of some basic information like estimation of passengers expected to collect on the occasion of Mauni Amavasya. Moreover, there were no prior arrangements for smooth accessibility to the accident site which delayed rescue efforts. Networking with local hospitals is also a key issue which was perhaps not taken up in the right earnest leaving victims stranded and awaiting medical help at the spot and thereafter.

An expert in Disaster management with several research papers and projects in the field to his credit, Srivastava recalled that only a few years back the railways had invited him to express his views on disaster management. But how seriously the suggestions have been incorporated in the disaster management plan, is not known.

Issues like pre-assessment of crowd concentration over the last three days, processing of information on sale of tickets for Allahabad and return journey at different locations for Mauni Amavasya would have come handy to pre-empt such a situation. Moreover, restriction of crowd movement in the periphery of Allahabad junction through public information system (PIS), diversion of passengers to platforms of trains for their respective destinations would have streamlined things.

Lastly, the disarray in which the department found itself in the wake of the accident proves that adequate training and necessary equipment were not provided to staff to handle such a situation which is the reason why timely medical help and relief teams were found missing at the site.

Sandeep Mathur chief public relation officer were sought on the issue but could not confirm whether the railways had made preparations to include a situation like stampede in its contingency plan or not.