Reacting harshly to Minister of State for Railways Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury’s statement that the Bihar Government should be held responsible for the Dhamaraghat train disaster claiming lives of 37 devotees, State Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said that Chowdhury remarks were “highly responsible” and he has made a “fool of himself” by attempting to shift the blame to his Government.
Kumar told mediapersons in Patna on Wednesday that from the newspaper reports, it appears that Chowdhury made his statements without any responsibility.The Chief Minister in an uncharacteristically sharp response to Chowdhury’s remarks said, “By giving such comments, he has made a foolof himself”.
Chowdhury had claimed that the train mishap at Dhamaraghat railway station in Khagaria district could have been averted had the State administration coordinated with the Railways in view of the congregation of large number of devotees near the station in view of the fateful day being the last Monday of the month of Shravan.
Chowdhury had visited the accident site and also met the injured devotees at a local hospital in Khagaria past midnight on Monday and later told mediapersons in Patna that the State Government should be blamed for the tragic death of devotees when Saharsa-Patna Rajya Rani Express ploughed into them.
Devotees were run over by the train while they were trying to cross tracks to reach Katyani Temple, situated near Dhamaraghat railway station.Soon after the accident, Nitish Kumar had sought to shift the entire blame to the Railways by arguing that the operation of trains was not a task of the State Government.
The Junior Railway Minister had claimed that the local administration did not alert the Railways about the large congregation of pilgrims for the fair at the Katayani temple and hence the Railways could not take some necessary measures.
Devotees were moving along railway tracks on the fateful day to reach Katyani temple as there was no road to reach the temple. Even relief operation suffered largely due to the absence of any road connectivity to Dhamaraghat railway station and civil and police personnel had to cover a distance of nearly six km to reach the accident site.
The train mishap had triggered large-scale violence as angry mobs ruthlessly assaulted the driver of Rajya Rani Express, took railway staff hostage and burnt trains and their engines.