Compensation For ‘Untoward Incidents’ Five Times That For Injury & Death
Anil Singh | TNN
Mumbai: While train accidents grab headlines, the bigger headache for Indian Railways is untoward incidents which encompass a whole range of things from terror strikes to passengers accidentally falling off trains.
The amount paid by the Railways as compensation for ‘untoward incidents’ is five times that for compensation towards death and injury because of accidents, show figures retrieved under the right to information.
Over the past 15 years, the Railways have paid Rs 74.5 crore as compensation for death and injury in train accidents. This means an average of Rs 5 crore a year, which is the cost of an electric engine.
Mumbai: While train accidents grab headlines, the bigger headache for Indian Railways is untoward incidents which encompass a whole range of things from terror strikes to passengers accidentally falling off trains.
The amount paid by the Railways as compensation for ‘untoward incidents’ is five times that for compensation towards death and injury because of accidents, show figures retrieved under the right to information.
Over the past 15 years, the Railways have paid Rs 74.5 crore as compensation for death and injury in train accidents. This means an average of Rs 5 crore a year, which is the cost of an electric engine.
The compensation for ‘untoward incidents’ over the same period is Rs 367 crore, or an average of Rs 24.5 crore a year. This would more than suffice for a 12-car Mumbai local train, which costs Rs 20 crore.
However, observers such as Samir Zaveri, who filed a PIL in the Bombay high court to ensure prompt medical aid to railway accident victims, say Rs 74.5 crore over a period of 15 years is a paltry sum given the fact that Indian Railways carry 18 million passengers a day, which is four million more than the population of Mumbai.
“Many victims are ignorant about compensation and the railways do little to publicise this fact or to provide them the promised free legal aid to file a compensation claim with the Railway Claims Tribunal,’’ he said. Zaveri also says that many victims are put off by the stories of delay in the tribunal.
The compensation for death is Rs 4 lakh. Loss of limbs, blindness, deafness and very severe facial disfigurement also entail a compensation of Rs 4 lakh.
If one presumes that all the Rs 74.5 crore paid as compensation for death and injuries over the past 15 years was only for deaths, this would translate into 1,864 fatalities. And if one were to take an annual average, it would amount to 124 fatalities a year all over
Chetan Kothari, who got the data about compensation through the RTI, says it is difficult to believe that the Indian Railways whose route length is one-anda-half times the length of the equator, spends an average of only Rs 8 crore a year on compensation for deaths and injuries in train accidents. “Just the other day, minister of state for railways K H Muniyappa said that one or two accidents a week are nothing unusual in such a large network,’’ he said.
Other than terror strikes to passengers falling off trains, untoward incidents under the Railway Accidents and Untoward Incidents (Compensation) Amendment Rules, 1997, also includes robberies, dacoities, rioting, arson and attacks.
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