Irate over ‘unfulfilled promises’, Dasehra train tragedy victims’ kin begin protest

Tribune News Service

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Amritsar, December 9

Dasehra train tragedy victims’ kin on Monday sat on indefinite protest against government’s unkept promises at Bhandari railway overbridge here.

Inadequate compensation, unmet promise of employment and daily grind of meeting expenses, are telling heavily on the survivors and family members of 60 people, who were mowed down by the Jalandhar-Amritsar DMU train during Dasehra festivities on October 19, 2018.

Deepak Kumar, who lost his three-year old daughter in the gruesome tragedy, his six-year-old son who had survived fatal injury in lever portion and he himself had suffered fracture in one leg, rued that the government did not deliver its promise of job to support their families.

Tirath Ram, father of deceased Deepu, had his eyes moist at the recall of the accident. He said Deepu had died after his forehead and jaw were pulverised and both legs got fractured. He said leaders like former cabinet minister Navjot Singh Sidhu had promised assistance but these proved only lip service.

Monika said her husband Jagdish Lal, a labourer, was killed by the speeding train and now the family was struggling to make both ends meet.

The protesters announced that they would not move from the protest site unless the government fulfilled its announcements.