Title - Rly help desk offers little help to accident chaos

Howrah: Relatives of passengers travelling on the Up Doon Express rushed to Howrah station on Thursday on getting the news of the accident. But the help desk set up by the railways could offer little information, leaving them confused and angry. While some managed to contact their relatives over the phone, most were clueless about the fate of their near and dear ones.
    Howrah resident Dinesh Mukherjee broke down at the helpdesk, unable to get any information about his father Basudeb, 69, mother Juthika, 55, and brother Subrata, 27. Mukherjee tried to get in touch with his family members, but when their numbers were unreachable, he went to the station. “I had spoken to my father around 8am. He said that everything was fine. I have been trying to call them for a few hours now but none of the numbers they are carrying is reachable. With the help desk here having no information, I feel all the more helpless,” said Mukherjee.
    His parents and younger brother, from Ramkrishna Pukur Lane in Shibpur, were travelling in S9 coach to Haridwar. The coach was among the six derailed ones. Though the help desk had information that four persons had died and 15 were injured, it had no information on who the casualties were, adding to the woes of the relatives.
    Sheikh Javed and Mohammad Javed of Howrah’s Bankra were frantically trying to locate their uncle Sheikh Azim and four minor cousins – Neha, 10, Chhoti, 12, Salma, 16 and S Ladri, 8. Azim was on the ill-fated train and going to Dehradun to drop off the children who had come to Bankra for their summer vacation.
    “We had been trying to contact them since we heard about the accident. Luckily Salma picked up the phone. But she sounded nervous and said that uncle Azim was injured and in no position to speak. We are really worried,” said Mohammad Javed.
    For Sanjeev Rai, a resident of Bhopal, the joy of his daughter bagging a job, had turned into a nightmare. On Monday, Rai had come to the city with daughter Pamela, 24, after she got a job with an IT company in Salt Lake Sector V. He also saw Pamela off at the station when she, along with a team from the organization, left for Dehradun to attend a training programme. Rai was supposed to leave for Bhopal on Thursday night, but instead headed for Jaunpur by the relief train to meet his daughter.
    “I am a little relieved after I spoke to my daughter. She said a sudden jolt threw her off the seat, injuring her in the head and leg. Now I will have to spend an agonising night before I can see her for myself,” said Rai. The railways has arranged to take relatives of the passengers to Jaunpur by adding more bogies to the Doon Express for Thursday night.


Mohammad and Sheikh Javed enquire about their uncle Sheikh Azim at the Howrah station on Thursday after getting news of the accident