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Unused funds, stampede, and mismanagement during Kumbh Mela under SP rule in 2013: A sharp contrast to Yogi’s digital Maha Kumbh

For the 2013 Kumbh, the then CM Akhilesh Yadav could not find anyone other than Azam Khan. Azam Khan was made the chairman of the committee of the Kumbh Mela. Azam Khan probably had no interest in the Kumbh, the biggest gathering of Hindus, and during that time he was busy running his parallel government in Rampur and setting up Jauhar University.

The Maha Kumbh is starting in Prayagraj from Makar Sankranti (14th January 2024) and the CM Yogi Adityanath-led government of Uttar Pradesh is busy preparing for the grand celebration of the Hindu festival. From infrastructure to crowd management, work is going on at a fast pace. The Yogi government says that the Maha Kumbh of 2025 will be the most incredible and divine.

Now the opposition has a problem with this mega event as well. Samajwadi Party MP from Faizabad Awadhesh Kumar has said that organising Maha Kumbh is nothing new and it happened during his government as well. Awadhesh Kumar has claimed that there is a loot going on in this year’s Maha Kumbh.

Meanwhile, their leader Akhilesh Yadav is also constantly raising questions about the preparations for Maha Kumbh. He claims that the work of Maha Kumbh is incomplete. However, Akhilesh Yadav and his party leaders forget that exactly 12 years ago, Kumbh was organised in Prayagraj under his own government and its mismanagement was criticised all over the world.

Instead of criticizing the Yogi government now, Akhilesh Yadav could have set a model during his tenure as Chief Minister but he did not show any interest in Kumbh at that time. From the stampede during the Maha Kumbh to not spending adequate money and doing proper crowd management, hundreds of irregularities took place in his government. A CAG report exposed the rampant irregularities and mismanagement by the Samajwadi Party government.

Azam Khan was made a minister, 42 died in a stampede

For the 2013 Kumbh, the then CM Akhilesh Yadav could not find anyone other than Azam Khan. Azam Khan was made the chairman of the committee of the Kumbh Mela. Azam Khan probably had no interest in the Kumbh, the biggest gathering of Hindus, and during that time he was busy running his parallel government in Rampur and setting up Jauhar University.

During this Kumbh, when Azam Khan was a minister, 42 people were killed in a stampede at the railway station of Prayagraj. This accident happened on February 10, 2013. This day was Mauni Amavasya and lakhs of devotees had come to Prayagraj to take a bath in the Ganga that day.

The report about this accident also came out later. One of the reasons for this accident was that the state government had not arranged for enough buses. After this accident, Azam Khan offered his resignation as a show of show but Akhilesh Yadav refused to accept it.

Two days after the accident, Akhilesh Yadav went to Prayagraj and after roaming around in the car, he went back. He did not even consider it necessary to take a bath here. Akhilesh Yadav, who is currently blaming the state government for not installing wires on the poles, was then appealing not to do politics on the accident.

60% of work was incomplete when Kumbh Mela was organised during Akhilesh Yadav’s tenure

The apathy towards Hindu devotees and irregularities in the fair’s organisation were not limited to this. When CAG audited this Kumbh, the real and shocking truth was revealed. The CAG report revealed that the date for completion of all the works for the 2013 Kumbh was initially set as 30 November 2012, but many of these works were not completed even before the fair began. Their dates were extended thrice in the meantime.

According to the CAG report, Akhilesh Yadav’s government could not complete 59% of the infrastructure work till the start of the fair i.e. 14 January 2013. That is, Akhilesh Yadav, who is currently making an issue of the wires not being installed on the poles, could not complete 60% of the work in his government till the start of the fair.

Even out of 111 road construction works, 65 were not completed even after the fair ended. Moreover, 4 projects worth ₹26 crores could not even be started. Despite all this, the Akhilesh government informed CAG in January 2013 that all the works were completed. CAG had put the government in the dock regarding this.

CAG also found in its investigation that out of the medicines, vehicles and other things that were to be supplied for Kumbh Mela, goods worth more than ₹2 crore had not reached even before the fair began. Many such works were done using Kumbh Mela’s money, which was not even related to it.

SP government gobbled up Centre-allocated fund

 A budget of ₹1152 crores was allocated for the 2013 Maha Kumbh. Out of this amount, ₹341 crores was given by the central government. This was to be spent for the infrastructure to be built during Kumbh and for other purchases. But this money was not spent completely. Out of this amount, ₹1017 crores was spent. That means an amount of ₹134 crores remained unspent.

In addition to this. the central government had given ₹800 crores separately to the Samajwadi Party for Kumbh. Akhilesh Yadav’s government did not spend a single penny of this amount for Kumbh works. The state government used this money for its own work.

The CAG report says that if we look at this calculation, the SP government spent only ₹10 crore or 1% of the budget from its own pocket. Because ₹1141 crore had already been given by the central government. Even after all this, there was a lot of misappropriation of the money that was spent. The level of misappropriation was such that bus and motorcycle numbers were given for the tractors working in the fair.

The CAG report shows that 30 workers were shown working at two places at the same time. They were also paid. In some places, crores of rupees were spent in the name of bridge repairs and at other places money was wasted on barricading. Overall,  massive corruption took place.

Only 5 divers were deployed to protect 12 crore people

The Akhilesh government not only displayed negligence in constructing infrastructure or spending money in the 2013 Kumbh but also showed gross negligence in the management of the devotees here. According to an estimate, about 12 crore people from India and abroad participated in this Kumbh. The CAG report itself shows that only 5 divers were appointed to handle these 12 crore devotees. Not taking the safety of people seriously in such a big event shows the Akhilesh government’s indifference towards Kumbh.

Yogi government to organise digital Maha Kumbh

While Akhilesh Yadav had turned the 2013 Kumbh into a monument of failures, the Yogi government has made preparations to organize the 2025 Kumbh as a digital Kumbh. The Yogi government has created a special app for this Maha Kumbh. This app will run in 11 languages. QR codes have been installed for every service in the Maha Kumbh.

Thousands of cameras have been installed in the entire fair area for the security of Maha Kumbh. An integrated command and control system has been created. AI has been used extensively in this system. Apart from this, drone surveillance will also be done here. The Maha Kumbh Mela area has been divided into 25 command centres.

The fair area of ​​Maha Kumbh is spread over several kilometres. Due to this, the devotees had to walk a lot. Now the Yogi government will change this situation. The Yogi government has made arrangements for shuttle buses, e-autos and e-rickshaws within the fair area in this Maha Kumbh. These will be available 24 hours for the convenience of the devotees, in addition, thousands of policemen have also been appointed.

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