A day after two persons died during a stampede at the New Delhi railway station, railway minister Mamata Banerjee’s ministry was busy trying to absolve itself of any blame. So it swiftly came up with “prima facie findings” on Monday. The findings predictably declared that “there was no stampede-like conditions on platform no. 12 and
13”. The third inquiry panel set up by Ms Banerjee since Sunday to probe the incident — two earlier ones announced on Sunday were scrapped — has concluded in its preliminary findings that there was no stampede after examining video footage obtained from closed circuit TV cameras.
Instead, the inquiry panel has sought to blame “probably some local condition” near the foot over-bridge caused by “unfortunate tripping” which in turn “may have resulted in the unfortunate incident”. The initial report makes no mention of any change in platforms of the departing trains.
The Northern Railways, under whose jurisdiction the New Delhi railway station comes, too was busy trying to attribute the Sunday incident to “tripping of some passengers” and “falling of their luggage” and that this was “purely incidental”.
This despite eyewitnesses having said earlier that the stampede followed a last-minute announcement on a change in the platforms from which two Bihar-bound trains were slated to leave on Sunday afternoon. Yet, Ms Banerjee who has been away in Kolkata for two weeks now on Sunday, sought to blame the passengers for the melee and even declared that the incident could be “sabotage”.
“It is not the failure of the administration. People are responsible for such chaos. It is difficult to control such situations,” the minister had said in Kolkata.
The preliminary findings have been given by an inquiry committee constituted on Monday — the third such panel announced by the rail minister ever since the Sunday stampede.
One inquiry committee was announced by Ms Banerjee soon after the mishap, only to be replaced some hours later by another one.