Title - Railways asked to pay damages to Sambalpur train accident victims

The High Court also asked the Railways to pay Rs. 1 lakh to one of the grievous injured woman, who is still undergoing treatment
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Despite Indian Railways strong Opposition to pay compensation to non-passenger victims, the High Court in a significant ruling on Monday directed the Railways to pay damage to all the victims of August 25 train accident that took place at an un-manned level crossing near Sambalpur.Disposing of a PIL filed by social activist and advocate Prabir Das, a Division Bench headed by Chief Justice V. Gopala Gowda asked the Chairman of Railway Board to pay Rs. 5 lakh each to the families of all the 14 victims who died while the vehicle in which they were travelling was hit by an Express train.The High Court also asked the Railways to pay Rs. 1 lakh to one of the grievous injured woman, who is still undergoing treatment.Similarly, the Railways was also asked to compensate other injured persons of the accident by paying damage ranging between Rs. 5,000 and Rs. 25,000 as per the gravity of the injury they have sustained.The mishap had taken place when an Express train hit an auto rickshaw in which the victims were crossing the railway track at Khairapalli. All the victims were farm labourers under BPL category and were socially and economically disabled. While 13 of the 14 deceased were women and belong to SC community, their family members could not independently fight to seek damage and therefore the PIL was filed on August 28. Taking all these into considerations, the High Court asked the Railway authorities to pay the compensation from the date of filing of the PIL with six per cent interest.The authorities are asked to complete the process of payment within two months, informed the petitioner advocate Das.The HC also directed the Railway authorities to convert all the un-manned level crossings into manned level crossings and deploy home guards with red flags to alert the road users about the approaching trains on the tracks. “Provide road under bridges (RUBs) and limited height subways (LHSs) wherever necessary”, the HC order said.Similarly, the State government was also asked to provide necessary cooperation to the railways for construction of all these structures within six months.The police and transport authorities were also asked to take stringent action against those drivers who are using mobile phones while driving.