Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath triggered a controversy on Thursday when he admonished protesters who raised slogans during his visit to Kushinagar where hours earlier, 13 schoolchildren were killed after the van they were travelling in collided with a train.
When he reached the accident site at Kushinagar, a group of protesters surrounded his convoy and raised slogans against the Railways and local officials. Adityanath climbed atop his vehicle and tried to pacify the crowd with a megaphone, saying, “Narebazi band karo, nautanki band karo (stop raising slogans, stop this drama).” He said he had come to express his sympathies.
However, some of the protesters squatted on the railway track.
Meanwhile, Adityanath said preliminary inquiries revealed that the van driver was wearing earphones listening to music when driving, which made him oblivious to the honking of other vehicles that tried to warn him of the approaching train. Adityanath said the guilty would face the most severe punishment.
Meanwhile, members of the bar council in Kushinagar criticised the district hospital for referring injured persons to other institutions without even administering first aid.
There were nearly 25 people in the van. The train was on its way to Gorakhpur from Siwan, when the accident occurred in Kushinagar.
(With agency inputs)