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Tundla tragedy: Railway engineer suspended

A Railway engineer was suspended on Sunday for alleged negligence in the collapse of a locomotive shed at Tundla (Uttar Pradesh) in which 25 people perished even as Northern Railway General Manager S C Mehta began an inquiry into the incident.

S C Mehta suspended D K Sharma, Inspector of Works and Assistant Engineer (construction), Kanpur, for alleged negligence and filed a criminal complaint against contractor Jogendra Singh who was assigned the task of demolishing the shed.

Mehta, who began the probe into the incident on Sunday, told reporters that prima facie the railway authorities were as much to blame for the incident as the contractor. He said the contractor should have started the demolition from the roof.

This is in keeping with the views of Union Minister of State for Railways Digvijay Singh who, on Sunday, held his department officials guilty for the accident. Singh, who arrived in Tundla on Saturday night by a special train, inspected the site of the accident and visited the Northern Railway Hospital to enquire about the health of those injured.

Talking to newspersons he said the demolition work on the loco shed was being conducted under the supervision of the railway department. Thus the department was as much to blame for the tragedy as was the contractor of the project. He said the area of operation should have been cordoned off. This would have prevented the tragedy. Digvijay Singh directed the officials to take strict action against the contractor of the project.

Twenty-five people were killed and nine injured when a 100-year old locomotive shed, which was being demolished, collapsed on them at Tundla Railway station on Saturday.

The Firozabad district administration on Sunday gave Rs 10,000 each to the families of 17 non-railway victims under its family welfare scheme. The kin of a minor killed in the collapse was not given any compensation, in accordance with the rules.

On the other hand, the railway authorities gave cheques for Rs 15,000 to the kin of all the deceased, including seven of its employees - Ramnaresh, Somendra Kumar, Abdul Sayyed, Sone Lal, Sobharan Singh, Ram Sujit and Ramesh Kumar.

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