CM Amarinder Singh took stock of the situation and assured the victims and deceased relatives that the guilty would be booked soon. He also ordered a magisterial inquiry into the tragedy.
A tragic train accident which killed 61 people has become a political blame game, with the opposition holding Punjab's Congress government responsible for allowing a Dussehra event near railway tracks and accusing minister Navjot Singh's wife and ex-lawmaker Navjot Kaur Sidhu of running away from the site.
Even as local MLA Navjot Singh Sidhu, who was accompanying Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh to meet the victims, said the mowing down of Dussehra revellers by a train was an accident and that nobody had done it intentionally, Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) chief Sukhbir Singh Badal accused Punjab's Congress government of lapses in allowing celebrations near railway tracks.
Sidhu, however, said there was a 'big negligence' and asked his detractors not to do politics over the incident. "It was an unfortunate incident. I talked to few people who told me that some people were standing on the rail track and some were sitting on a stone near the track," he said.
CM Amarinder Singh took stock of the situation and assured the victims and deceased relatives that the guilty would be booked soon. He also ordered a magisterial inquiry into the tragedy.
He also ordered an immediate release of Rs 3 crore to Deputy Commissioner Amritsar for payment of ex gratia to the families of the deceased. "When a tragedy occurs the entire administration gets involved. We have come here as soon as we could come. Today, the entire cabinet of Punjab is here," Singh said.
When pressed about the action taken and fixing of responsibility, Singh said this was not the time for blame game. "It's a tragedy and we are in grief. The inquiry will find out who is to blame. Till then, we can't blame anybody. This is not the time for tu-tu, main-main. This needs to be dealt with in a proper manner," he said.
Asked by it took him 16 hours to visit Amritsar, Singh said he was on his way to Israel when news of the accident reached him at Delhi airport. "But now we are all here. Three ministers will be here to oversee the relief operations."
However, Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) chief Sukhbir Singh Badal accused Punjab's Congress government for lapses in allowing celebrations near railway tracks. He said the Amritsar train tragedy was not an accident bur a 'massacre'. "This is a mass murder...no...it's a mass massacre," Badal said on Saturday.
Inquiry Ordered
CM Amarinder Singh took stock of the situation and assured the victims and kin of deceased that the guilty would be brought to book soon. He also ordered a magisterial inquiry into the tragedy.
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