Deepak Paswan, 25, from Gorakhpur doesn’t know whether to return home or keep searching for his mother Binda, 60, who got separated from him during the pre-dawn stampede on Wednesday.

He is one among the many pilgrims still shuttling between the lost-and-found camps in the Mahakumbh area and the hospital morgues in Allahabad City, looking for missing loved ones or their bodies.

No help has come from an insensitive Yogi Adityanath government that continues to ignore, 60 hours after the tragedy, the norm of releasing the names and addresses of every dead and injured victim.

The administration has not just failed to identify the victims, it hasn’t even come out with a revised death toll after the chief minister’s initial — and much contested — claim of 30 dead and 60 injured.

Deepak and Binda were walking towards the Sangam around 1.30am on Wednesday when people began running in all directions on the Akhara Marg.

“I was holding her hand but lost her when the crowd started tripping over one another. I don’t know where she went or who took her away in what condition,” he said.

“The police didn’t tell me anything about her. I saw them putting the dead and injured on handcarts. Stretchers and ambulances arrived after 45 minutes and then they took away some more victims. There were so many dead and injured that I couldn’t trace her.”

He added: “Since then I have been going to the three lost-and-found camps at the Mela and the morgues at the government hospitals every day.”

Suraj Kumar Sen from Darbhanga in Bihar and his family members too are “running everywhere”, looking for Sushila Devi, 40, a relative.

Some families accused hospitals of denying them death certificates.

“The police took my 60-year-old aunt to the hospital attached to the Motilal Nehru Medical College, where she was declared dead. We traced her after about 20 hours but didn’t get the death certificate,” Awatar Singh from Bhabua in Kaimur district, Bihar, said.

“Without a death certificate, we can’t take her to our home in Bihar, nor can her family claim compensation.”

Adityanath, whom it took 17 hours since the stampede to admit any deaths, has announced a compensation of ₹25 lakh each for the families of the dead. But with the official toll not yet revised from the initial figure of 30, not every bereaved family is expected to receive the ex gratia, anyway.

VIP culture

Many stampede survivors have blamed the administration’s decision to block all the pontoon bridges before the 4am Brahm Muhurt (most auspicious moment) for the Shahi (Amrit) Snan on Mauni Amavasya despite the crowd swelling since 11pm.

Most of them have alleged that the bridges had been closed to ordinary pilgrims so that VIPs could have a smooth passage.

Mahakumbh DIG Vaibhav Krishna has dismissed the allegation saying there was no VIP movement at the time of the stampede, but the devotees have dubbed this a “smart lie”.

According to the official schedule, over 2 lakh sadhus — including several hundred enjoying special government security — were to be the first to take the holy dip at 4am. They included Ayurveda medicine tycoon Baba Ramdev, who has Z-category security, and Avadheshanand Giri, head of the Haridwar branch of the Juna Akhara who moves with police security in the Mela area.

“We consider these sadhus VIPs and provide them with a dedicated route to the Sangam whenever they wish to go there,” a Provincial Civil Services officer said in the Mela area, seeking anonymity.

“We had no information about any movement by ministers (for Wednesday morning) but many MPs — including the BJP Lok Sabha member from Mathura, Hema Malini — were in the Mela and were eager to take the bath along with the sadhus.”

The officer provided an indication of the mismanagement, if not corruption, at the Mela.

“During an inquiry into a fire that broke out on Thursday, we found that some private agencies had erected 118 cottages on about 24 bighas of government land near the Mahakumbh’s Sector 22 in the Phulpur area without informing the authorities,” he said.

“They were charging ₹18,000 for a night. When the fire broke out there and 15 cottages were burnt down, we began the inquiry. But we don’t know who gave them permission to use government land.”

‘VIP bar’ U-turn

In a reflection of how entrenched the “VIP syndrome” — as some pilgrims have dubbed it — is at the Kumbh, district magistrate Vijay Kiran Anand made a U-turn on Friday from his claim a day earlier that all VIP passes had been cancelled and VIP movement barred at the Mela.

“There is no restriction on VIP movement. We are ready to welcome the Vice-President (Jagdeep Dhankhar) and 116 representatives from different countries on Saturday,” he said.

DIG Krishna had on Thursday said no vehicles would be allowed in the Mela area any longer, but officials clarified that visiting VIPs would continue to use vehicles.

An estimated 25 per cent of the 4,000-hectare (40sqkm) Mela area is permanently blocked to ordinary pilgrims. This reserved area is for the VIPs — who include politicians, favoured sadhus, Bollywood stars and celebrity sportspersons — and their vehicles.

A theatre of the absurd played out on a road in the Kumbh area on Friday, flagging the extent of the mindless kowtowing to VIPs.

Over 300 police and paramilitary personnel were seen moving with rope barriers around the three-member judicial commission probing the stampede. This on an otherwise nearly empty road that had already been “sanitised” for the VIP visitors.

It’s not difficult to imagine the possible scenes on Saturday when the Vice-President and 116 foreign dignitaries representing countries such as the US, Britain, Russia, Japan and Italy visit the Mahakumbh.

Adityanath, whose convoy normally has 30-plus vehicles, is also expected to be present.