Punjab minister Navjot Singh Sidhu's wife, Navjot Kaur Sidhu was the chief guest at a Dussehra event in Amritsar where a train tragedy claimed 60 lives.
The railways said that even though it was not mandatory for it to probe this case, the Amritsar tragedy had 'become a matter of great public discourse'.
Organisers of Dussehra events near train tracks tell ThePrint they take several precautions, besides being in touch with railway authorities for coordination.
SEBI probe concluded that purported loans and fund transfers were paid back in full and did not amount to deceptive market practices or unreported related party transactions.
Many really smart people now share the position that playing cricket with Pakistan is politically, strategically and morally wrong. It is just a poor appreciation of competitive sport.
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.
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.