Chandigarh, Feb. 16 -- Former Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal, on Sunday, slammed the government for allegedly neglecting the safety of the devotees a day after 18 people died in a stampede at New Delhi Railway station, with several others were left injured.

Bansal told ANI, "...The government should accept that a wrong announcement was made leading to the incident."

Responding to a query on the government announcing compensation for the families of the victims, he said, " Compensation does not absolve you (government) of your responsibilities, and it will lessen the gravity of the offence. These are two different things," he said referring to the tragedy and the compensation.

He further said that state governments always announce ...