Pathankot, December 17
The station master of Bangala, Mr V.K. Malviya, today surrendered before the Chief Commissioner, Railway safety, northern circle, Mr G.P. Garg. Mr Garg arrived here today to initiate the inquiry into the accident in which 38 persons, including railway staff and passengers, were killed. The accused station master was handed over to the railway police after the Chief Commissioner recorded his statement.
In his statement before the Commissioner, Mr Malviya said that he had allowed the DMU train pass from his station only after a communication with his counterpart at Mirthal. He said that he communicated the code ‘double four’ to the Mirthal station master signalling that he was releasing the train from his station.
With this the station masters of Mirthal and Bangala, who were booked by the railway police for the accident, have been arrested.
In the inquiry today, Mr Garg recorded the statement of 20 persons linked with accident. The persons whose statements were recorded today include signalmen and other staff of the Bangala and Mirthal railway stations. Though the Railways had called upon the eyewitnesses to the accident through advertisements in newspapers to record their statements before the Commissioner, none of them turned up today.
Mr Garg said that he would be visiting the accident site tomorrow. The statement of the surviving driver of the Jammu Tawi express would be recorded at the hospital at Ludhiana tomorrow,
where he was undergoing treatment. The GRP was requested to produce station master of Mirthal Ram Lal so that his statement could be recorded. However, since he was not produced his statement would be recorded in jail at Jalandhar.
While responding to queries of newsmen, Mr Garg corroborated the finding of The Tribune that besides the communication system failure the code message was also the major cause of the accident.
He said that the inquiry would be held as to how both station masters got similar ‘double four’ code. The Railway controller at Ferozepore has, however, revealed that he had directed the Mirthal station master to allow the Jammu Tawi express to pass from his station. He had directed that both trains would cross at the Bangala railway station. However, the same message could be conveyed to the Bangala station master due to the failure of the communication system.
The Chief Commissioner also took in his control the cut cable linking the block token instruments of Mirthal and Bangala railway stations. He said that an inquiry would be held to find out how many times railway contractors broke the communication link between railway stations due to their carelessness and why the supervising officers had not checked them from doing so. The responsibility for breaking the communication line between stations could be fixed on the contractors and the officials supervising them.
Mr Garg said that the statements of the rest of persons and agencies related with the accident would be recorded in Delhi. The preliminary report of the inquiry would be released by the end of this month while the final report would be released by March-end next year. The report, besides fixing responsibilities for the accident, would also suggest measures to prevent such accidents in future.
Meanwhile, the Railways had distributed Rs 43.30 lakh among the kin of the deceased and the injured as part of the immediate grant announced by the Railway Minister, Mr Laloo Prasad Yadav. The railway authorities here told The Tribune that a grant of Rs 1.15 lakh each had been given to the kin of 34 deceased and Rs 15,000 each to 40 injured. The cases of three deceased were disputed. The grant in these cases would be released only after someone produced the legal heir certificate.
The railway tribunal would decide about the additional grant of Rs 4 lakh and government jobs to be given to the kin of the deceased in the accident. They had been directed to file their claims on a performa prescribed for the purpose.
