Country's biggest railway junction. On October 5, a three-member inquiry team began investigations into October 3rd stampede at Mughalsarai station, where 15 women were killed and 48 people injured.
The team has been constituted by Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav. The team is led by Chief Commercial Manager Rajendra Prasad Bharadwaj, has CMO R P Singh and Deputy Chief Security Officer Tariq Ahamed as its other members.
The incident occurred when there was a sudden surge of people who came out of two trains, arriving almost simultaneously, on the staircase of an over bridge.
Fasting women had alighted from trains to go to Varanasi, 20 km away from Mughalsarai, for a bath in the Ganges on the occasion of 'jivit putrika vrat', a local festival.
A large number of women observe fast for their husbands’ long life. They had arrived from various places in Bihar and eastern Uttar Pradesh to visit Varanasi.The mishap occurred when Gaya Passenger and Varanasi Ghazipur DMU arrived almost together at around 1.45 p.m. on platforms five and six, leading to a stampede on the overbridge.
They were on their way to take a holy dip in the Ganga at Varanasi The mishap was reportedly caused due to the railways authorities changing the platform of a train at the last moment.
Lalu Prasad Yadav reached the Divisional Railway Hospital at Mughalsarai and met those injured in the stampede and announced an ex-gratia of Rs 2 lakh each to the family of those killed in the stampede, besides giving railway jobs to at least one of their dependents.
Railway Ministry should pay more attention to expanding and upgrading it infrastructure. Asbestos roofs, congested and rickety staircases, waste mismanagement dot this public transport system, it is high time it is brought on track by taking administrative decisions beyond announcing ex-gratia.
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