Title - Dhamaraghat train tragedy: Ex-gratia payment only to genuine beneficiaries, DRM says

DHAMARAGHAT (KHAGARIA): Railways have constituted four teams each comprising three junior and senior grade officials and an inspector, which will go to every village home of the next of kin of those who were run over and killed by Rajyarani Express at Dhamaraghat railway station on Saharsa-Mansi section under Samastipur division of East Central Railway (ECR) on Monday.Divisional railway manager (DRM), Samastipur, Arun Malik, on Wednesday said the railways' teams will get in touch with the mukhiyas, block development officers and the police officers concerned to ascertain the identity of the victims' kin and ensure that the ex-gratia of Rs 5 lakh offered by the railways and additional Rs 2 lakh by the state government goes to the right beneficiaries."As most of the beneficiaries may not have their own bank accounts, the railway teams will also help them in opening bank accounts," the DRM said. The teams have already been dispatched, he said.The 12568 Super Fast Rajyarani Express will chug out from Patna railway Junction on Wednesday and make its return journey from Saharsa on Thursday which was disrupted since Monday following the tragedy at Dhamara Ghat station. This superfast train and Saharsa-Amritsar Janseva Express, along with others will run according to their schedule from Thursday onwards, said the DRM. The work on repairs of signalling system and station building panels, which are now in full swing, will take three to four days, a senior railway official said.

Dhamgara Ghat railway station, which is famous for the Katyayani temple, barely 400 meters away from the station, is a pathetic tale of neglect and apathy. Girded up by rivers, it is virtually an island, and rail is the only link to this place. On either side of this place that is between Koparia and Dhamara Ghat and again between Dhamara and Badlaghat, a stretch of 14 km, there is no road. The inhabitants trek the area through two abandoned bridges across rivers Bagmati and Kosi. "You cannot even afford a bicycle," said one Rambabu Mishra. Often people take countryboats to reach the station," said Navin Kumar, who lives near the Katyayani temple.

"It did not surprise me when the state disaster management minister, Renu Kumari Kushwaha, called upon the injured persons at Khagaria sadar hospital but avoided visiting the accident site at Dhamara Ghat station, barely 40 km away, which must be due to lack of road," says Raj Kumar, a college teacher at Simri Bakhtiyarpur. The British government laid the rail track between Saharsa and Mansi, but no state government has ever cared to construct a road in the area, said one Yugal Ram.