Railway Minister Pawan Bansal on Monday revealed that the death toll in the Allahabad Railway station stampede has reached 39, according to reports.
The union minister, who is expected to visit the accident site on Monday, said that travel arrangements for pilgrims returning to their homes are made.
"27 special trains have left from Kumbh at 10 am today. We are cancelling trains from other destinations to accommodate more trains for Kumbh," CNN reported.
The ministry has announced a compensation of ₹1 lakh each to the family of the dead.
Earlier, the central government announced a compensation of ₹5 lakh each to the kin of those killed and ₹1 lakh each to those seriously injured in the stampede. The Uttar Pradesh government also said a compensation of ₹5 lakh each to family of the dead.
Bansal has reportedly asked for an examination of the CCTV footage from the railway station to find out the actual cause of the accident.
There were reports of police using lathicharge to control the huge inflow of pilgrims. This subsequently led to panic and the overcrowding triggered the stampede.
Meanwhile, victim's relatives claimed that the hospital was charging them for the cloths to cover the bodies of the dead, reported IBN Live.
Angry relatives gathered around divisional commissioner of Allahabad Devesh Chaturvedi near the Swaroop Rani Hospital mortuary complaining that the hospital asked them to pay ₹ 1200 for shrouds. They also alleged that they were asked for ambulance fare to take away the bodies.
Chaturvedi dismissed the reports saying, "No one was asked for money by the hospital authorities."
"We are concentrating now more on the relief work. I don't want to go into what was the cause right now. We are committed to provide relief to injured and families of the ones who have died in the tragedy," he added.
The incident occurred at around 7 pm on Sunday at the Allahabad Railway Station where over 1.5 lakh pilgrims had gathered to board trains after the occasion of the 'Mauni Amavasya Snan'. The footbridge near one of the platforms reportedly collapsed due to the overcrowding.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) held the central as well state government responsible for the stampede and demanded a probe into the matter. BJP president Rajnath Singh expressed grief over deaths and claimed that the stampede could have been avoided if the government had taken adequate precautions.
