A police commando and a photojournalist were injured on Sunday when protesters threw stones and clashed with security personnel near the site of Friday’s railway tragedy, demanding immediate compensation and government jobs for the bereaved families.
The police caned and dispersed the 100-odd protesters, who were blocking the tracks, and train services resumed in the afternoon, a railway spokesperson said.
A train had ploughed through a crowd watching the Dussehra event of Ravan Dahan at Joda Phatak near Amritsar on Friday, killing 59 and injuring 72.
Many of the victims were on the tracks and did not hear the approaching train’s horn in the noise of the crackers and the giant Ravan effigies burning in the darkness, eyewitnesses and officials said.
Relatives of the victims have turned on the railways for allowing the train to go through when there were scores of people on the tracks. The railways have said they were not informed about the event and that people should not stand on the tracks.
The Amritsar civic body has claimed it had not given permission for the event, organised by the husband of a Congress councillor and featuring as chief guest the wife of a minister in the state’s Congress government, Navjot Singh Sidhu.
On Sunday, relatives and local people blocked the tracks at the accident site, saying there was no help coming for the grief-stricken families. They chanted slogans against the state government and demanded Sidhu’s resignation, and began throwing stones when the police tried to remove them.
“They should give the close relatives of the dead and the injured government jobs. They should also make sure they get the compensation quickly. Nobody has received anything till now,” said Ravinder, one of the protesters who only gave his first name.
Protesters throw stones towards policemen who were clearing the tracks for the train. (AFP)
The police charged at the stone-throwing mob with sticks to disperse them. The Rapid Action Force too had been deployed, officials said.
Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh had announced a compensation of Rs 5 lakh each for the bereaved families and free treatment for the injured. But such compensation often takes months or longer to reach the families.
Officials said Amarinder had directed the Amritsar administration to prepare detailed socio-economic profiles of the victims.
He later told chief principal secretary Suresh Kumar that the government needed to do more than just give ex gratia, especially in instances where the victims were poor, they added.
The chief minister, who met some of the survivors in hospitals on Saturday, was particularly moved by the tales of two young women who had lost their entire family, including their children and husbands, an official release said.
The Congress on Sunday questioned the railways’ refusal to initiate a probe.
“The on-the-spot, instantaneous rejection after a short spot visit by the railway minister (minister of state Manoj Sinha) of even an inquiry sounds extremely cruel to put it mildly. No one is saying the railways or anyone else is at fault. Only an inquiry is being asked for,” Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi said in New Delhi.
“We have been told that these celebrations take place every year. What happened this time? Was the gateman missing? We are told that special warnings are issued every year. Were they issued this year too? Every year, the trains passing through this area at this time are reduced to a crawl, so why did it not happen this year? These are matters that need to be investigated. How can you reject a probe?” he said.
