SUBHASH MISHRA
Dhanbad, July 14: Dhanbad Rail Division of East Central Railway (ECR) Zone has set up a committee to probe the rail underpass mishap in which four contractual labours were buried alive late night of Tuesday.
Senior Public Relations Officer of Dhanbad Rail Division PK Mishra said that prima facie, it looks like the incident occurred during the construction of the Low Height Subway (LHS) where a heavy chunk of surface clay caved in. But DRM Ashish Bansal has set up a one-person probe committee under Senior Divisional Engineer Estate Dhanbad Rakesh Kumar and has asked him to submit the report as soon as possible.
Divisional Rail Manager (DRM) has fixed three points for the probe committee to focus on which include the reasons behind the incident, the responsible person for the mishap/ circumstance and the steps to be taken for avoiding such tragedy in future again. The action would be taken against the responsible person based on the probe report.
The underpass between Pradhankhanta-Rakitpur railway station under the Dhanbad rail division caved in at night on Tuesday in which four labourers of a private contractor were buried alive under the rubble. After the incident, the staff of the contractor fled from the spot. Since all deceased labourers were locals, the villagers stopped the rescue operation of the railway as well as the district administration and blocked the Howrah-Delhi rail track demanding compensation.
In the meantime, on the directive of the State Legal Services Authority, a team of Dhanbad District Legal Services Authority began a probe of the incident. The team under additional judge cum DLSA secretary Natasha Barla inspected the incident spot and talked to the family members of all four victims.
The DLSA official said that the state Legal Service Authority took suo moto cognizance of the incident and has directed the district body to conduct a probe and ensure the victims’ family gets compensation properly.
