Local administration responsible for Amritsar train tragedy, says Sinha

Varanasi: Union Minister of State for Railways Manoj Sinha on Sunday stated that the local administration are responsible for the Amritsar tragedy in which 59 people were crushed to death by a train while watching the burning of the Dussehra effigy.

"Had the local administration been cautious, the incident would have been avoided. The Railways was not informed about the Dussehra ceremony. Had they informed us, we could have taken measures," Sinha stated.

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He added, "The incident should not be politicized."

Sinha was responding to a query over the incident at Joda Phatak when the passenger train heading to Hoshiarpur from Amritsar came hurtling down.

Sinha, who laid the foundation stone of projects and inaugurated developmental schemes at various stations between Varanasi and Buxar, also said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has changed not just the political culture, but also the work culture.

He laid foundation stone for various projects at Dheena, Dildarnagar, Gahmar and other stations.

What else Manoj Sinha stated:

• Due to the special interest of the Prime Minister, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh are getting more attention towards development of railways and its infrastructure projects.
• The investment in railways has been tripled from Rs 48,000 crore to Rs 1.48 lakh crore.
• Sinha announced various projects worth Rs 32 crore including introduction of a new MEMU train from next month between Buxar and Varanasi.