The Hindu : Opinion / Letters to the Editor : Clarification

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Thursday, Apr 27, 2006

Opinion

Opinion - Letters to the Editor

Clarification

This is with reference to the "Online and Off Line" column (April 24) wherein a reader has expressed her anguish about a boy who travelled by train from Chennai to Kolkata and died after hitting a post near Bhadrak, East Coast Railway.

Southern Railway would like to clarify that normally in the case of any railway accidents involving casualties, one of the primary things done is to try to get information about the details of the dead/ injured. These are invariably flashed at the earliest in all newspapers and the visual media.

Every effort is made by the Railways to give the maximum assistance to relatives of the injured/dead, including free passes to reach the spot. The utmost care is taken to monitor every injured person in hospitals. As a special case, money is also withdrawn from station collections to meet immediate requirements.

This specific case mentioned by the reader is an isolated one where a person died due to falling off from the train in mid section after hitting an electric post while leaning out of the running train. Such cases, particularly when they happen during odd hours, go unnoticed and it is only later when the Railway police detect such cases that they get reported to the Railway. Such cases are very rare and it is not out of carelessness that the Railway does not take them up.

This specific case has been taken up for investigation and proper remedial action will be taken to prevent such incidents in future.

Thomas Varghese,
General Manager,
Southern Railway, Chennai

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