Yogi Asks Protesters to Stop With the ‘Nautanki’ at Kushinagar

The UP chief minister was greeted with slogans and protests as he reached the spot of the accident.

Thirteen school children were killed in Kushinagar, in Uttar Pradesh on 26 April after a train and school bus collided at an unmanned crossing.

(Photo: Shruti Mathur/The Quint)

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Thursday faced angry protests during his visit here to get a first hand account of the train-school van collision that left 13 children dead.

As Adityanath reached the accident spot after visiting the district hospital, an angry crowd raised slogans against railway and local authorities.

The chief minister tried to pacify them using a megaphone. "Narebazi band karo, nautanki band karo" (stop raising slogans, stop this drama). I have come here to express my sympathies," he said.

However, the protesters were not satisfied and some of them squatted on the railway track.

This is a sad tragedy and I ask you to stop creating a ruckus. Note what i’m saying, <i>ye nautanki band kardo</i> (stop with the drama), I am telling you this is a very sad tragedy and the families are in major grief, do not create ruckus.

Yogi Adityanath

They demanded that railway personnel should be posted at the unmanned crossing to avoid such accidents.

Members of Bar Council, Kushinagar, also complained about the "irresponsible attitude" of the district hospital staff.

"As soon as they saw 13 bodies, senior officials of district hospital at Kushinagar referred four injured children and the driver to BRD Hospital without even administering first aid," members of the Bar Council complained to the chief minister, according to an official.

Eight other children were injured in the accident which occurred around 50 km from Gorakhpur.

The children, students of Divine Public School, were killed on the spot when the Thawe-Kaptanganj passenger train crashed into the van at the unmanned crossing gate at Behpurva, said Railways spokesman Ved Prakash.

The train was on way to Gorakhpur from Siwan.

It was an unmanned level crossing gate at Behpurva, with Gate Mitra (rail volunteer) deployed there. He tried to stop the van but the unfortunate incident happened at unmanned gate 45 near Dudhi station in Banaras division.

A Railway official

An accident relief medical train from Gorakhpur has been dispatched to the site, he said.

Adityanath has also announced an ex-gratia of Rs 2 lakh for the families of the victims and directed the Gorakhpur commissioner to conduct an inquiry into the accident, according to Principal Secretary (Information) Awanish Awasthi.

Railway Minister Piyush Goyal also announced a compensation of Rs 2 lakh each for the kin of the deceased.

(With inputs from PTI)

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