Amritsar train accident: Manoj Sinha holds local administration responsible for tragedy

Union Minister of State for Railways Manoj Sinha on Sunday held the local administration responsible for the Amritsar tragedy in which 59 people were crushed to death by a train while watching the burning of the Dusshera effigy.

"Had the local administration been cautious, the incident would have been avoided. The Railways was not informed about the Dusshera ceremony. Had they informed us, we could have taken measures," he told reporters.

Sinha was responding to a query over the incident at Joda Phatak when the passenger train heading to Hoshiarpur from Amritsar came hurtling down.

He said: "The incident should not be politicized."

Sinha, who laid the foundation stone of projects and inaugurated developmental schemes at various stations between Varanasi and Buxar, also said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has changed not just the political culture, but also the work culture.

He said that due to the special interest of the Prime Minister, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh are getting more attention to the development of railways and its infrastructure projects.

"The investment in railways has been tripled from Rs 48,000 crore to Rs 1.48 lakh crore," he said.

On the occasion, Sinha announced various projects worth Rs 32 crore including the introduction of a new MEMU train from next month between Buxar and Varanasi.

He laid a foundation stone for various projects at Dheena, Dildarnagar, Gahmar and other stations.