ThePrint brings you excerpts from the report submitted to the Punjab government that details all the mistakes that led to the Amritsar train tragedy.
Chandigarh: “There is no doubt that people standing on the rail tracks at the time of accident were trespassers and, therefore, were inviting an accident including deaths and injuries… but the railways does not have a licence to kill and trains are not running with an assumption that it [sic] will kill any one standing on rail tracks.”
The magisterial inquiry ordered by the Punjab government into the tragedy at Amritsar’s Jaura phatak this Dussehra, where over 60 spectators gathered for Ravan dahan were mowed down by a train, has offered a scathing indictment of the railways’ negligence in the episode.
The report, which has been submitted to the Punjab government, is equally critical of the role of the organisers of the event, held in an open field adjacent to the tracks, with questions raised on the role of police and civic officials as well.
With a huge crowd gathering for the Dussehra event on 19 October, those eager for a clear view of the Ravan dahan took position on the tracks, setting stage for tragedy.
ThePrint exclusively accessed the damning 96-page report prepared by Jalandhar divisional commissioner B. Purushartha on the findings of his investigations. Here are some of the highlights.
Also read: Punjab panel blames railway staff & Dussehra event organisers for Amritsar train tragedy
Where railways failed
The report holds railway employees responsible on several counts. Two major ones are listed below:
1. Gatemen failed to alert authorities about the crowd.
The report notes that the gateman posted at Jaura phatak, a railway crossing barely 300 feet from the accident site, failed to inform authorities about the presence of the crowd, which was within his sight.
“… Gateman of Jaura phatak (Gate No. 27) Mr Amit Singh has… committed a blunder… He is one of those key railway employees whose blunder has resulted in this accident.”
The report also faults another gateman for alerting Singh about the crowd too late. “Gateman of… Gate No. 26 (next crossing from the site of the accident) Mr Nirmal Singh… came to know about this gathering on rail tracks around 5.30 pm, but informed… Mr Amit Singh around 6.40-6.45 pm.”
2. Giving itself a quick clean chit.
The report points out that the railways, which had earlier absolved its employees of any role in the tragedy, did not bother to hold a full-fledged inquiry.
“The simple logical position would be that the railways is not responsible for any death or injury to trespassers which has happened after taking proper precaution/safety measures… This is something, which can only be ascertained after an inquiry.
“Without holding such [an] inquiry, giving [a] clean chit to the railways… does not appear to be a correct decision…”
The organisers:
- Didn’t have permission to hold the event.
“It is evident that… the organisers… held the event in an illegal manner, compromising the safety and security of spectators’ life.”
- Did not inform the railways.
“A simple information [sic] could have resulted in the issuance of a caution order by the railways for controlled and alerted movement of trains in this rail section and other security measures which could have easily prevented this accident,” the report notes.
- Did not try to persuade the public to get away from the tracks.
“Only one such announcement was made from the stage… [Even this]… was just to ask people to take care of themselves being aware of train timings.”
- Should have blocked the view of the Ravan from the tracks.“Had the organisers been sensitive to the safety and security of the people watching this Dussehra celebration… a simple action of putting a view cutter of 10-12 feet height along the boundary wall separating the ground and the rail tracks could have prevented this accident…”
The report holds the organisers “squarely responsible” for the accident.
“The president (of the Dussehra organising committee) Sh Saurabh Madan Mithoo, all other members of the Dussehra Committee (East) and Smt Vijay Madan are responsible for organising the event in an illegal and irresponsible manner without any requisite permission from any competent authority and compromising the safety and security of people…”
Also read: Not just Amritsar, several Dussehra events in Punjab are held right next to rail tracks
Police, municipal corporation:
1) The corporation did not stop the celebrations from being held.
“It was for the municipal corporation to ensure non-holding of any event in this land without its permission, which it failed to do…”
2) Police did not ensure safety of venue before issuing a permit, the panel notes. Police personnel, it adds, allowed the event to go ahead despite the fact that the conditional permit issued to the organisers stood cancelled on 19 October over violations.
3) The 73 police personnel present at the site didn’t “apprehend the danger involved and inform the railways in time”.
Observations
“The accident was a result of ‘tragedy of errors’,” the report notes. “This inquiry revealed an alarming situation as far as regulation and supervision of an event at a public place/government land is concerned.”
“Everyone concerned with organisation, regulation and supervision of the event under inquiry committed omissions and commissions including dereliction of statutory duties,” it adds.
“The spectators committed the mistake of watching this event from rail tracks; the organisers hold this event without any permission and without undertaking required safety and security measures; police and municipal corporation functionaries failed to enforce law and rather showed unwanted generosity,” the report notes.
“Key rail employees,” it adds, “failed to take safety and security measures even after having full knowledge of presence of a large number of people on and around rail tracks.
“It seems that spectators watching such events remain in a state akin to the famous Schrodinger’s cat, which is a quantum superposition of simultaneously being both alive and dead,” it notes.
“In the case of Schrodinger’s cat, quantum randomness or act of observation decides the fate of the cat coming out alive or dead. Similarly, in the case of spectators of such events, random play of coincidences decides the fate of spectators coming out alive or dead,” it adds.
Minister Manoj Sinha gave a “clean chit” to the driver WITHIN 24 hours, that’s all I remember from the news bits that were emerging in those days. The minister must have taken a few hours to reach the spot; what data was put forth before him; did he meet or interrogate the driver himself; all this happened at great speed and within 24 hours the driver was free of suspicion. And mind you, this accident happened at 7 in the evening, so the minister must have reached there and got investigating only the following morning, more than 12 hours after the accident.
His train had no lights, he was driving at 60kmph plus. That’s hell of a speed for those DMUs; I have travelled in one of those myself. These vehicles hardly EVER achieve that speed, and for very very short stretches, because they have to halt every so often. He was apparently driving round a bend. Was he new to that route? That was a large ground, and often functions must have been occurring there round the year. People must have been often spilling on to the tracks. Didn’t he know that? Did his brakes fail? Was he inebriated? Did he have a psycho problem, like the pilot of Singapore airlines flight 370?
Much was made of the fact that “the organizers did not inform the railways in advance.” Almost every statement from the railways underlined that fact. So did it give some sort of a carte blanche to the driver? I don’t really know what to make of the whole thing.