Mamata Banerjee announces jobs for kin of train accident

Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjeeon on Monday announced state government jobs for the next of kin of those who lost their lives in the triple train crash in Odisha’s Balasore.

The West Bengal CM said that relatives of those who lost their limbs in the horrific crash will also be given government jobs.

Banerjee added that her government will also give cash aid to those who were on board the Coromandel Express and are currently going through mental and physical trauma.

She will visit Bhubanewsar and Cuttack on Tuesday to meet the injured passengers recuperating in different hospitals.

She said currently there are 206 injured passengers from West Bengal admitted in different hospitals of Odisha.

“There are 33 critical passengers in Cuttack hospitals,” she said, adding that a few Bengal ministers and senior officers will accompany her.

She will distribute the ex gratia cheques and appointment letters to the next of the kin of the victims on Wednesday.

The Bengal chief minister added that she did not want to get into any sort of politics on the accident and would do everything to help the injured passengers and their families.

Earlier in the day, Banerjee cancelled her four-day trip to Darjeeling at the last minute to supervise the treatment and rehabilitation of passengers of the state who were injured in the train accident, sources said.

The Trinamool Congress chief was supposed to visit Darjeeling where she was scheduled to meet members of all political parties in the Hills before the panchayat elections slated this year, secretariat sources said.

“She wants to be in Kolkata and oversee how the rehabilitation and treatment of injured passengers from West Bengal who were on board the Coromandel Express that met with an accident. She will visit the Hills later," the source told PTI.

A coal-laden goods train from Vizag port to Rourkela Steel Plant became the first to run on the restored tracks around 10.40 pm on Sunday night, hours after both the up line and the down line tracks were repaired.

The first high speed passenger train - Howrah-Puri Vande Bharat Express - passed through Balasore on Monday morning through the same tracks, officials said.

Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw was present at the accident site and waved to the drivers when the train passed through, the officials said.

The Coromandel Express crashed into a stationary goods train, derailing most of its coaches at 7 pm on June 2.

A few coaches of Coromandel toppled over the last few coaches of the Bengaluru-Howrah express which was passing by at the same time. A goods train was also involved in the crash.

Investigators are looking into possible human error, signal failure and other possible causes behind the three-train crash.