Mumbai, Oct 13 (PTI) The opposition Congress and theruling ally Shiv Sena have dubbed as mere "eyewash" thefindings of a panel which probed the stampede at theElphinstone Road station here last month.
The five-member inquiry panel, led by Western Railway'sChief Safety Officer S K Singla, had submitted its report andrecommendations to WR's General Manager on Wednesday.
The report said the stampede, in which 23 lives werelost, was triggered by heavy rains as also panic caused afterpeople mistook the cries of a vendor losing grip of hisflowers for the bridge collapsing.
Shiv Sena MP Arvind Sawant termed the inquiry report asan "eyewash" and said the reasons given in it seemedillogical.
"How can the railways absolve itself of theresponsibility. The truth is that they ignored thedeteriorating condition of infrastructure at the stationdespite repeated calls and alerts from the passengers," Sawantalleged.
He said even he had raised the issue several times.
Mumbai Congress unit chief Sanjay Nirupam also termed theinquiry report as a "cover-up" and said his party workerswould conduct their own audit of the major suburban railwaystations in Mumbai.
"This report is a complete eyewash and cover-up. Theincident took place because of the criminal negligence on thepart of railway officers and they should be booked anyways.
Thank God that a few people have knocked the doors of theBombay High Court," Nirupam alleged.
"But we have now decided to carry out own audit of therailway's infrastructure through our own structural engineersand submit it (report) to the railway authorities and thecourt, if needed," he said.
Sudheendra Kulkarni, the chairman of the ObserverResearch Foundation, that conducts studies of railwayinfrastructure on a regular basis, also said theresponsibility of the tragedy lies with the railway officials.
"Blaming rain and rumours is like blaming the victims whogot trampled due to the long neglect of the railways. Thebabus sat on the file for over 18 months despite frequentsubmissions from several quarters. So I think the officialconcerned should be booked and punished," he alleged.
Kulkarni said it was high time that the local trains,monorail, metro rail and the bus services are operated by anintegrated multi-model transport authority based in Mumbai.
However, Vivek Sahai, the former chairman of RailwayBoard, said the incident took place due to several factorsadding up in a very short span of time.
"Since I have not gone through the report, I cannotcomment much on this. But I feel the stampede was the outcomeso many factors occurring all of sudden and in a very shortspan of time," Sahai said.
Kailash Verma, the general secretary of Mumbai RailPravasi Sangh, an association of rail activists, alleged thatred-tapism in the railways was responsible for the tragedy.
PTI APM GKAAR.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.