Sixty-one persons died in a head-on collision between the Delhi-bound Dakshin Express and a stationary goods train outside Agra cantonment. Twenty-three persons were injured, five seriously. The accident occurred at 4.15 am within the Southern Express coming from Secunderabad on the wrong track leading to the goods yard and the goods train at considerable speed. Ten of its 14 bogies were derailed. The engines of the two trains collided, smashing the first bogie of the Express and completely compressing it to one-third of its actual size. All the dead and most of the injured were from this bogie. Fifty eight bodies were recovered from this mass of twisted metal and till 6 pm rescue teams were still at work to extricate three more bodies trapped inside. This bogie, attached to the engine, comprised the Railway Mail Service personnel, the luggage-cum-brake van and a small second-class unreserved compartment.
The Chief Justice of India does not share the governmentâs view that chief justices of high courts should invariably be outside the state. The CJI has conveyed to the government that he was opposed to all chief justices of high courts being from outside and the wholesale transfers of chief justices. From time to time, the consultative committee of the Parliament attached to the Law Ministry has been recommending that as a matter of policy, chief justices should be from outside. The government has also been of the view.
India will resist any attempt by Pakistan to seek the dilution of the Simla Pact at the next talks between the two countries. New Delhi does not know what concrete proposals Aga Shahi will bring when he arrives in Delhi on January 28. There are indications that the talks will only be the starting point of discussions on a no-war pact.
