(FE)
Cracking the whip, the Railways tonight sent on leave its three top officials, including a secretary-level Railway Board official, suspended four and transfered one in the wake of Utkal train derailment which appeared to have been caused by negligence. The action against the eight officers came hours after Member (Traffic) of the Railway Board, Mohd Jamshed, indicated that negligence appeared to have caused the derailment in which 22 people were killed and 156 injured, 26 of them critically.
Member (Engineer) in the Railway Board, Aditya Kumar Mittal, Northern Railway General Manager R K Kulshrestha and Divisional Railway Manager (Delhi) R N Singh were sent on leave, said a Railway Ministry statement. Mittal, a secretary level officer, is the senior-most functionary to be sent on leave in the wake of the accident, said a Railway official, describing it as an “unprecedented move”. Officials are usually sent on leave till the time the probe is over and the responsibility fixed.
Kulshrestha and R N Singh had visited the accident site last night and were part of the first central team which inspected the damaged track. R K Verma, Senior Divisional Engineer, Delhi division, Rohit Kumar, Assistant Engineer (Meerut), Inder Jeet Singh, Senior Section Engineer (Muzzafarnagar) and Pradeep Kumar, Junior Engineer (Khatauli) have all been suspended, the statement said. mChief Track Engineer, Alok Ansal, has been transferred, it added
