You are here:
Crossing dangerous tracks in India. Photo: Balaji Kasirajan
New Indian rail law complicate accident compensation
Published: Mon, 2014-11-10 11:41-
-
Printer friendly
Casualties due to trespassing not compensated
Around 15,000 people get killed in India every year due to 'trespassing' on rail tracks, of which 6,000 occur in Mumbai alone. Such deaths are not covered by the 'untoward' incidents law.
Secondly, deaths from such so called 'untoward' incidents are difficult to trace in the Railways' own official statistical documents. Even data on the railway claims website are for cases where claims for compensation in case of death or injury were made. It doesn't cover cases where an injury occurred, but no claim was made.
The Kakodkar committee noted that, "the data maintained in Railway Board office pertains to only those train accidents with apparent consequences and train accidents of minor nature and near misses are not included...casualties due to trespassing of railway track, or for other reasons connected with railway infrastructure and casualties of IR's own staff while on duty are not compensated, though quite substantial injuries or damage.
Why there is a new law in the first place? Obviously were half of all cases, that came before the tribunal, faked, this would still mean that around 30,000 legitimate cases of death of passengers came before the tribunals since 2001-02. While the over Rs 919 crore of compensation that the Railways has paid out since 2001 seems a lot of money, this amount paid out over 14 years is around quarter of the revenue earned by the Railways from passenger fares in just August 2014.
Source: Economic times
Av Markku Björkman
Related News
