BJP slams Mayawati over compensation for stampede victims

BJP today said it was "patently inhuman" for Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati to say her government did not have enough funds to provide compensation to Pratapgarh stampede victims and asked how much money she had spent on erecting her own statues.

"How can Mayawati say her government has no funds for the stampede victims? It is unbelievable that a large state like Uttar Pradesh does not have funds for giving compensation. This is patently inhuman," party spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad said.

"Any democratic party cannot speak such a language," he said.

In the stampede at the ashram of Swami Kripalu Maharaj in Pratapgarh , 63 people, mostly women and children, were killed and scores of others injured on Thursday.

Prime minister Manmohan Singh has announced an ex-gratia payment of Rs2 lakh to the next of kin of those killed and Rs50,000 to those seriously injured.

BJP said the stampede was an "unfortunate incident" and insisted that there was lack of proper management and police arrangement for the programme in the ashram.

Former BJP president Rajnath Singh has gone to Allahabad - where the injured have been admitted in hospitals - and Pratapgarh to meet those hurt in the incident and the families of the victims.