Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Sushil Kumar Modi demanded on Monday an all-party meeting to discuss Friday’s stampede during Dasara celebrations here in which 33 people were killed and many were injured.
“The government should call an all-party meeting. Merely transferring some officials will not be enough. Murder charge must be instituted against them,” said Mr. Modi, who earlier in the day visited Masaurhi, some 30 km from here, to meet the family of one of the deceased. The BJP leaders, including Patna Sahib MP Shatrughan Sinha, later joined a dharna at Kargil Chowk here.
“The State government should also give Rs. 10 lakh as compensation and job to one member each of the victims’ families,” Mr. Modi said.
On Sunday, a BJP delegation met Governor D.Y. Patil seeking President Pranab Mukherjee’s intervention to provide “justice” to the victims of the tragedy.
“The State government has shown its irresponsibility time and again. It has no right to continue in power. We are seeking President Pranab Mukherjee’s intervention and action in this regard,” party leader Nand Kishore Yadav said.
In the memorandum, the BJP mentioned the stampede during the Chhath festival in November 2012 and the bomb blasts during Narendra Modi’s rally at Patna Gandhi Maidan last year in which several people were killed. The government learnt no lesson from them, it said.
“After the Chhath festival stampede, the State government promised systematic arrangements for festivals and programmes that attract big crowds; nothing was done,” the memorandum said.
