New Delhi: Pinning the blame on Railway officials and a contractor for the Bhagalpur tragedy, Railway minister Lalu Prasad on Monday informed the Lok Sabha that three engineers have been suspended and the contractor blacklisted.
An FIR for criminal proceedings has been lodged by the station manager, Bhagalpur, with the local GRP police station against deputy chief engineer, construction, his assistant engineer and a junior engineer, he said in a suo motu statement.
Orders have been issued to blacklist messers Bijoy Kumar Enterprises, the contractor who was entrusted with the work.
Thirty-five passengers were killed when an over 100-year old overbridge collapsed while the Howrah-Jamalpur Express was nearing the Bhagalpur station. The debris fell on S-8 coach.
Among the injured, 12 were grievously hurt, the minister said.
The minister announced that the next of kin of each of the deceased would be given Rs 5 lakh as ex-gratia, Rs 1 lakh to each of those who got grievously injured and Rs 25,000 in each case of simple injury.
He said the stipulated compensation up to Rs 4 lakh to the kith and kin of the deceased and to the injured as may be decided by the Railway Claims Tribunal will be payable in addition to this ex-gratia amount.
Comments
0 comment