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This is an archive article published on December 4, 2000

Shouting and screaming, Mamata orders probe

FATHEHGARH SAHIB, DECEMBER 3: Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee, after arriving a day late and spending two hours at the accident site, ord...

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FATHEHGARH SAHIB, DECEMBER 3: Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee, after arriving a day late and spending two hours at the accident site, ordered a judicial probe by a sitting Supreme Court judge into the collision of Howrah-Amritsar Mail with the derailed coaches of a goods train.

She reached the site around 3am, in a special train from Delhi and started shouting and screaming at the Divisional Railway Manager (DRM), Ambala, Vijay Kumar.

She said that her earlier orders, specially about the repair of the rail tracks in the region, were not carried out. When the DRM tried to explain, she retorted: “I am not satisfied with your explanation. Two major accidents have occurred during your tenure.” She asked the railway officials camping at the site: “ Do you think I still have any moral right to continue as a minister?”

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She added: “I am not a technical person, I am from the administration side. It is up to you people to take care of the tracks.” She ordered an inquiry and indicated that heads would roll.

Justice G.C. Garg, then a sitting High Court judge, has been probing the Khanna accident for the past two years but is still to submit his report. Justice G.N. Ray, a retired Supreme Court judge, was appointed to probe the Gaisal collision in August, last year but the report is not ready yet.

When asked if she will resign after this incident, Mamata said: “If my resignation will help the passengers and the deceased, I am ready to resign.” She later visited the hospitals at Rajpura and Fatehgarh Sahib.

Earlier Minister of State for Railways Digvijay Singh also visited the site.

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The death toll today mounted to 43 with three more bodies being recovered from the debris. Senior railway and police officers said that all bodies had been removed.

DRM Vijay Kumar ruled out human error as the cause of the accident. He clarified that the goods train had passed the Sadhugarh railway station at 5.23am and it had travelled about 7-8 kms in about 8 to 10 minutes. By the time the driver of the goods train put on the flasher lights, the Howrah Express had already passed at a speed of about 80 to 100 kms.

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