LUCKNOW: UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Thursday faced angry protests during his visit to Kushinagar district to get a first-hand account of the train-school van collision at an unmanned crossing at Dudhi railway station that left 13 children dead and seven injured.As Adityanath reached the accident spot after visiting the BRD Hospital, the crowd raised slogans against railway and local authorities.
The CM tried to pacify them using a megaphone, “Narebazi band karo, nautanki band karo” (stop raising slogans, stop this drama). I have come here to express my sympathies.”However, the protesters squatted on the railway track and demanded that railway personnel be posted at the unmanned crossing to avoid such accidents. Members of Bar Council, Kushinagar, also complained about the “irresponsible attitude” of the district hospital staff.
“As soon as they saw 13 bodies, senior officials of district hospital at Kushinagar referred four injured children and the driver to BRD Hospital without even administering first aid,” members of the Bar Council complained to the chief minister, according to an official.
Meanwhile, Krishna Verma, 9, one of the seven survivors, told TNIE, “We were shouting and asking the driver to stop as we could see the train approaching us but he didn’t as he was on the phone.”
According to Gorakhpur DM Vijyendra Pandiyan, the driver was alive and battling for his life at Baba Raghavdas Medical College in Gorakhpur.