On Monday, Punjab minister and Amritsar East MLA Navjot Singh Sidhu said that he will not only adopt the child victims of the Amritsar train incident but will also take responsibility for the affected families.
The Amritsar train accident took more than 60 lives at a function on Dussehra. The function was organized by Sidhu’s aid Saurabh Mithu Madan and was headed by his wife Navjot Kaur. As per the sources, Navjot Kaur reached late at the event which came out as one of the reasons for the accident as Dussehra revelers couldn’t see the approaching train in the dark and got crushed.
“It seems that the local authorities and the organisers did not properly manage the crowd, gathered to watch the Dussehra celebrations. It was the responsibility of the State to provide proper safety and protection to the citizens during the event,” the NHRC said while taking suo motu cognisance of media reports about the incident.
Besides this, Dinesh Kumar Dakoria, an advocate filed a petition in the Punjab and Haryana high court to request an enquiry by the Central Bureau of Investigation in the matter. Mr Dakoria also accused the event organizer as the sole reason for the tragedy.
On the other hand, a similar petition was filed against Navjot Kaur in the chief judicial magistrate’s court in Bihar’s Muzaffarpur. In the petition, a request has been made to register a case against Kaur. The case will be heard on November 3.
Accompanied by Punjab Congress president Sunil Jakhar, Sidhu told reporters in Amritsar, “I commit to take all kind of responsibility to educate them (the victims) and settle them from my own pocket. Besides, I also take responsibility of the persons who became disabled or the elderly who lost the breadwinner of the family,” he said.
Mr Sidhu also made possible efforts to enquire the health of the victims of the Amritsar train accident and visited the local civil hospital and Guru Nanak Dev Hospital for the same.
Regarding the incident that took place on 19th of October, the amount of ₹5 lakh each to 21 families of the deceased has been announced by the Punjab Government as compensation.
