-- Bharatiya Bikash Parishad submits memo
: The Bharatiya Bikash Parishad (BBP) submitted a memorandum to the Prime Minister demanding job for the family members of the deceased and those rendered invalid due to serious injury in the Bahanaga triple train tragedy.
The Parishad also demanded the resignation of Railway Minister Ashwani Vaishnaw on moral grounds.
The Parishad sent copies of the memorandum to the Railway Minister, Chairman of Railway Board, Union Cabinet Secretary, Chief Secretaries of Odisha, WB and Tamilnadu, GM of South Eastern Railway and DRM of Khurda Railway Division.
The Parishad alleged that the statements given by different railway officials and Government officers including the Railway Minister relating to causality are contradictory to one another. The Government and the Railway Ministry are probably trying to hide the exact number of deaths to divert public attention and to escape from public anger, the Parishad alleged.
Addressing a Press meet here, Panigrahi said surprisingly, the Chief Secretary of Odisha and the Railway Ministry have claimed the recovery of 288 bodies from the accident spot and a day after the officials again claimed the number of bodies to be 275. However, some eye witnesses claimed that about 500 passengers died in the tragedy. WB Chief Minister Mamata Banarjee claimed that the whereabouts of 200 passengers are not known.
Disaster Management Minister of Bihar Sahanwaz Alam alleged that, the whereabouts of 88 passengers of Bihar are yet to be traced, while the WB during her visit to hospital in Odisha alleged that 31 passengers from WB alone were untraceable. All these statements are confusing the public regarding the number of death, untraceable and bodies recovered.
The Parishad also alleged that the role of Union Railway Minister appears to be mysterious since he first declared that the incident would be probed by a senior officer of the Railway Department and thereafter declared that the Safety Commission would probe the matter and surprisingly after a few hours the task of investigation was entrusted to the CBI.
Citing unconfirmed sources, the Parishad claimed that currently there are 3.41 lakh posts lying vacant under the Railway Ministry and against the vacancies the family members of the accident victims can be absorbed. The culprit responsible for the tragedy should be hanged in public after a thorough probe, Panigrahi pointed out.