The Hindu: Mumbai: Wednesday, January 27, 2016.
The Railways
on Monday told the Bombay High Court that 3,304 people died and 3,349 suffered
accident injuries in 2015 while commuting in local trains. Advocate Suresh
Kumar, appearing for the railways, submitted a copy of steps taken to reduce
the number of deaths and accidents due to overcrowding.
The court was
hearing a public interest litigation filed by Samir Zaveri, who lost his legs
in a railway accident, to seek medical facilities for accident victims. The
Railways report highlighted that the major reason for suburban railway deaths
and accidents was overcrowding, and that the Government Railway Police is
taking all steps to check accidents. A division bench of Justices VM Kanade
Revati Mohite-Dere was informed that recently a young girl was rushed from one
hospital to another after she fell off the train and eventually died.
The court
asked why even simple painkillers are not provided to victims. Mr Kumar said
that each Central Railway station has one first aid box with around 10
essential items and a bigger medicine box with 60 items. He also said that
ambulances are parked outside railway stations to immediately rush the victim
to a hospital and give them treatment.
However, the
advocate appearing for the petitioner said these ambulances are given on rent,
and that an RTI query had revealed they had made a profit of Rs 1,500 crore in
the Mumbai region. Reading out from the report, Mr Kumar said several steps
were afoot to manage crowds better such as metro train-like coaches, restricted
number of tickets for each train among others. Mr Kumar said it won’t be
possible to try this experiment on Western Railways, but on Central Railway,
there is a suggestion to issue 100 coupons to the first 100 travellers to
prevent more people from entering.
The court
suggested the Railways to form a separate team to look into accidents and
provide first aid at the earliest. The court said the team can also maintain a
record of the victim, the hospital he or she is taken to, and what treatment is
meted out to the passenger.