Blood on the tracks

The blame game follows the train accident that claimed the lives of 62 Dussehra revellers in Amritsar on October 19.

Published : Nov 08, 2018 12:30 IST

The police and volunteers carry a victim from the site of the train accident.

The police and volunteers carry a victim from the site of the train accident.

ALL physical traces of the October 19 tragedy in Amritsar, when a speeding train ploughed through a congregation of people who were watching “Ravan dehen” (burning of the effigy of Ravan) for Dussehra, have vanished. Dhobi Ghat at the Joda Phatak area bustles with activity as it did earlier: washermen dry clothes over blue plastic spreads; drivers blare horns impatiently as they struggle through the crowded, unmetalled roads; and vendors attend to their customers at the sporadic tin-shed kiosks. Yet, when the local people gather, they talk mostly about the tragedy. They apportion blame for it to the police and the Railways equally.

Accusations are flying thick and fast in political circles as well. Just a day after the incident, which claimed 62 lives and left over 90 people injured, Union Minister of State for Railways Manoj Sinha came out with a strong defence of the Railways. He said there was no provision for erecting barricades along railway tracks across the country. Earlier that morning, Railway Board Chairman Ashwani Lohani had issued a statement saying that his department had no prior knowledge of the Dussehra celebration at Dhobi Ghat, which lay close to the tracks over which the swarming crowd of people in festive mood spilled over, inviting death.

Politics lay bare in the aftermath of the tragedy. Sinha, who belongs to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), blamed the organiser of the function, Saurabh Madaan ‘Meethu’, son of a Congress councillor, and pointed to the callousness of the administration in Congress-ruled Punjab for the incident. “It’s the duty of the public not to hold public functions near the railway tracks,” he told the media. “Even the local administration should not allow such functions.”

The opposition Shiromani Akali Dal chipped in, with its legislator Bikram Singh Majithia accompanying an injured person to the Mokhampaura police station to file a complaint against Madaan. Punjab’s Local Government Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu, whose wife, Navjot Kaur Sidhu, was the chief guest at the Ramleela function, fired a volley of questions at the Railways. Among other things, he questioned the clean chit given to the train driver, the speed at which the train was moving—90 kilometres per hour according to some media reports—and the driver’s allegation that people had pelted stones at the train.

The local people, too, are scathing about the Railways—and no less about the administration—as this correspondent found during a visit to the place. “You can see the gatekeeper’s post from here. Will anyone believe that he had not seen people over the tracks when he closed the gates of the manned level crossing? Why did he not alert the station master?” asked a youth in his twenties, who identified himself as a “resident” of the area.

The Railways has absolved the gatekeeper too of any negligence. Lohani maintains that at Jora Phatak, the Jalandhar-Amritsar Diesel Multiple Unit (DMU) passenger train was running at its assigned speed and that its loco-pilot had applied brakes to slow it down. An elderly man blamed the administration: “See, now they have these policemen guarding us. What were they doing then [on the day of the accident]?” he said, pointing to the security personnel who were guarding against any possible flare-up on the part of the enraged masses.

On October 20, the local people held a massive sit-in protest on the railway tracks, defying Punjab Police commandos and Rapid Action Force personnel who had been deployed in large numbers. There were reports that the Shivala railway crossing was vandalised by unidentified persons on the night of October 19.

Far from this political slugfest, at the overcrowded Mokhampaura locality, a pall of gloom hangs in the air at the nearly rundown house where Navjeet Singh and Paramjeet Kaur are sitting with their relatives, mourning the death of their only son, 16-year-old Sachin. Unusually calm, the bereaved father said: “ Ki phadak penda hai ”—which roughly translates to “how does it matter anyway” —when he was asked who did he think was responsible for the tragedy.

“He had sneaked out in the afternoon without our knowledge; we would have never allowed him [to go] had he asked for our permission,” said Navjeet Singh, hardly 40, about his son.

Gradually, he pointed to the lax attitude of the administration and the organisers. “They [the organisers] chose a dangerous spot for the effigy burning. When Ravan [Ravan’s effigy] is set on fire, people recede backwards, to escape the heat from the exploding crackers. It is natural for people to have receded towards the tracks behind them,” he told Frontline .

His neighbours and relatives dismissed reports that people had pelted stones at the moving train, compelling the driver to not apply brakes in fear of arson. Navjeet Singh said that he had learnt from eyewitnesses that the train had been moving at around 90 kmph. “That’s too fast for a train that is about to enter the city,” he pointed out.

Shortly after the mishap, Paramjeet Kaur got a call from Sachin’s number informing her of her son’s accident. “His mobile had broken, but someone took out the SIM and used it from another handset to contact us. We rushed to the spot, but he... his body... had been already taken to Civil Hospital,” she said.

The State government led by Amarinder Singh announced Rs.5 lakh each as compensation to the kin of those killed and the Centre announced Rs.2 lakh each. Navjeet Singh told Frontline that he had received the ex gratia payment from the State government but was yet to hear from anyone at the Centre.

The tragedy saw an outpouring of condolences from world leaders, notably Russian President Vladimir Putin, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. The Amritsar Municipal Corporation (AMC) and the Amritsar Improvement Trust (AIT) have been passing the buck on the question of granting permission for the function.

After the Chief Minister ordered a magisterial probe into the incident by the Jalandhar Divisional Commissioner, B. Purushartha, the AMC claimed that the Dhobi Ghat land came under the AIT’s jurisdiction. The AIT, however, maintained that it was the other way round. The report of the inquiry is expected in four weeks.

Security lapses

According to a report published in an English daily, 25 of the 29 Ramleela functions held in the city, including the Dhobi Ghat function, did not have security clearance from the municipal corporation.

Madaan, before he disappeared from the glare of media attention, had claimed that he had obtained the requisite permission from the police before going ahead with the Dussehra celebrations near the Choura Bazar area. Yet, there are questions galore on the security oversight.

Dr Parminder Singh of the Association For Democratic Rights (AFDR), Punjab, listed a few of them. AFDR, Punjab, is an affiliate of the Coordination of Democratic Rights Organisations, a union of civil liberties and democratic rights associations in India. It is currently compiling a report on the Dhobi Ghat tragedy. “No doubt the organiser had taken an NoC from the police, but there was clearly a lack of coordination between the police, the administration and the corporation. The crowd was expected since the organisers had invited a singer to perform live. What was lacking was crowd management; it did not occur to anyone that at the time of the burning of the effigy, the crowd would retreat towards the tracks, where the deafening sound of the crackers would drown the sound of the horns,” Parminder Singh told Frontline .

Parminder Singh said that local people had told the volunteers of his organisation who surveyed the accident site that when Navjot Kaur arrived as the chief guest, there was an exhortation from the stage that even if 500 trains were to pass from there, people would not bother... they would cheer for her. “This is nothing short of encouraging people to stand on the tracks,” he said.

He said that the AFDR team had learnt from reliable sources at the police station concerned and the Civil Lines that around 90 police personnel were present at the time of the accident. “Why didn’t they act proactively?” he asked.

Media reports say that the organisers had installed a big LED screen facing the railway tracks so that many people could watch the event. Eyewitnesses said this tempted them to move towards the tracks.

Amarinder Singh, who cancelled an upcoming Israel tour, has directed Home Secretary N.S. Kalsi to prepare detailed guidelines for the holding of religious and social congregations in order to prevent a repeat of the calamitous evening of October 19.

But for now, Subhash Rani of Sharif Pora locality feels the police are largely to blame for the loss of lives. “The Railway Police were nowhere to be seen, the train was speeding,” she complained. Her husband, Ramesh Kumar, 58, is among the injured. He is undergoing treatment at Civil Hospital currently, she says, but for a long time he will not be able to resume his copper work, which brings the family its daily bread. “The treatment is free of cost [in the hospital], but it is difficult to make ends meet,” said Subhash Rani, who has two daughters.

She was extraordinarily lucky that day. Like in the past, she was excitedly looking forward to attending the Dussehra festivities at Dhobi Ghat. “But they [the family whom she serves as a domestic help] did not give me leave,” she said on her narrow escape.

At the surgical ward at Guru Nanak Dev Hospital, Amritsar, the victims are too consumed by grief and physical pain to discuss whom to blame for the tragedy. Badly injured Keemti Lal, whose daughter Rajini and one-and-a-half-year-old granddaughter Nabnoor were run down by the train, is not sure who erred. “ Pata nahi , sir, [I can’t tell],” sighed the 55-year-old, who works at a bakery near his house in Krishna Nagar, not far from the accident site. “I can’t recall how I was hit, whether by the train or in the stampede that ensued.”

“The government is providing us food and free treatment, but we don’t know about compensation,” he said, letting out his breath audibly in pain as the nurse administered a shot. The Centre has announced Rs.50,000 to each of the injured.

Dr Rakesh Sharma, Professor-in-charge, Surgery, at Guru Nanak Dev Hospital, which is about three kilometres from Joda Phatak, said medical preparedness in the city was exemplary and that had helped save lives. “We got a distress call around 7:20 p.m. that day; there were five junior residents, two senior residents, and one assistant professor besides me at that time in the hospital. The first thing we did was to send an alarm to all the residents on the campus. By the time the injured poured in, we had a fairly adequate team of surgeons, orthopaedists and an anaesthesia team,” Dr Sharma told Frontline .

“We do not have neurosurgeons here, but our hospital administration was quick to refer such patients to private hospitals. The city administration was equally brisk in ferrying the patients. Of the 44 patients we received, 17 were brought dead and two died within 30 minutes; another died in the ICU. But we were able to save the rest,” he said. Dr Sharma also said that around 170 people had volunteered to donate blood.

Seven-year-old Vansh was brought to the hospital with massive abdominal injuries. He was resuscitated by intubation at once. His spleen had to be removed, but the doctors are confident he will live normally. Currently the cynosure of the local press, the demure boy is conscious when the press takes his photographs. “Adjust my shirt, please,” he beckons to a nurse as he looks into the camera, seemingly unaware of his miraculous survival.

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