The truth of godhra train fire mystry. DELHI, 27 August ? At long last on Aug. 18, theMinistry of Railways has releasedthe reservation listof the ill-fated S-6 coach of the Sabarmati Expresswith a self-indicting analysis.According to the railways, of the59 passengersbooked, three had canceled the booking and four havenot been traced (presumably because of some defect in,or loss of, reservation slip) and 32 had actuallytraveled and reached their destination.This makes 39 and leaves 20.The break up of the 20 is given as four killed, nineinjured and seven missing.Presuming those missing to be dead, we have 11 killedand nine injured. The first mystery is: Why have theauthorities attempted to conceala basic document? Thereservation list of the ill-fated coach S-6 of theSabarmati Express has been available since Feb. 27;photocopies were floating around.Yet the railways has taken just a little less than sixmonths to make it public and thattoo under media andParliament?s pressure. The totalnumber of personskilled has been reported to be 58 of which 39 havebeen identified. Who are the rest of those killed? Were they all theticketless/unauthorized travelers?By any law of statistical probability, if 52passengers give rise to 11 fatal casualties, for 54remaining fatal casualties we need 265 unauthorizedpassengers!This would be an impossible proposition, because thecoach had a capacity of 72 and ifit was invaded bythe ticketless Karsevaks, they would not have exceededanother 72!Does it mean that the fire made a distinction betweenthe bonafide passengers and theticketless Karsevaks?Obviously, there is something fishy in the statementof the Ministry of Railways.May be Mamata Banerjee is right after all when sheaccused Nitish Kumar of buying his continuance asminister for concealing the truth and then fudging the figures.
Posted on: Tue, 23 Jul 2013 16:21:57 +0000
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