Protesters seek answers after India train tragedy
THE 61 VICTIMS INCLUDE LOCAL RESIDENTS AND MIGRANTS FROM AS FAR AS BIHAR
Angry relatives staged a protest yesterday on the tracks where a speeding train ploughed into crowds watching fireworks, killing 61 people.
The Jalandhar-Amritsar express was hurtling at 90km/h when it hit scores of people who had gathered on the tracks on Friday to get a view of a firework-packed effigy of the demon king Ravana for a Hindu festival.
Sporadic protests broke out near the accident site, with scores of protesters calling for action against the local authorities and the train driver who was questioned by police yesterday.
The driver told police he did not see the revellers until the last second because he had come around a bend in the dark into the firework smoke. According to media reports the organisers, members of the ruling Congress party, had gone into hiding.
In the death of 61 people in the Amritsar train tragedy on Friday evening, a bigger tragedy has struck many families: their sole breadwinners have died. In several cases, children are still trying to find their parents.
Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, who visited the accident site and the injured in hospitals yesterday, said two little girls he met in the hospital had lost their entire families.
“This is the photograph of my father. I have been looking for him since last night. He was last seen here [on the railway tracks near Joda Phatak]. Please help me to find him,” a young woman, crying bitterly, said at the accident spot.
“I have looked everywhere, including hospitals and the railway track, but there is no trace of my son. No one is helping us,” said the father of a missing boy. The victims include local residents and migrants from as far as Bihar, who live in the city.
Families of sole breadwinners like Suresh Kumar or Parminder Pal Singh are unable to think how life will move on without them. “It happened in a matter of 10 seconds. People did not get the chance to react to the approaching speeding train, amid the noise of the firecrackers,” said Raman, who saw the tragedy unfold before his eyes as he stood on the side of the railway track.
“The sight was ghastly after the train passed: lifeless bodies and limbs lay strewn around. Many were crying in pain. People who were there helped the injured. The authorities did not react for a long time,” he added.
‘Railways not to blame’
Union Minister of State for Railways Manoj Sinha yesterday said his ministry is not to be blamed for any lapses leading to the disaster.
The railways was not informed about the Dussehra ceremony near the Jora Phatak vicinity either by the area administration or the event organisers, he added. “In fact, the Commissioner [Amritsar] in his report has said he has not granted permission to hold the Dussehra festival at the spot,” Sinha, who visited the accident site at midnight, told reporters.
According to a senior railway official, the incident happened some 340 metres from an interlocked level crossing of the railways.
The Railway Board chairman said that at Jora Phatak, the Jalandhar-Amritsar Diesel Multiple Unit (DMU) passenger train which was running at its assigned speed, its loco-pilot applied brakes to slow it down.
At the time of the incident, the gates of the manned level crossing were closed and the train was given the green signal.
A senior Railway Ministry official, however, admitted that the loco-pilots of the Diesel Multiple Unit (DMU) JalandharAmritsar Passenger train did not apply emergency brakes.
Emergency brakes could also derail the train at high speed, the official explained.
The train’s driver was detained at the Ludhiana railway station and questioned by the Punjab and Railway Police yesterday. Doctors at the Civil Hospital said that the death toll could rise as some of the injured were critical.