Stampede: We Should Hang Our Heads in Shame: Ex-Rail Official

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Northern Railway Goofed Up Big Time, says ex-Rail Official

By Raisina Correspondent

New Delhi, February 16: A top ranking former official of the Railway Board said that the Northern Railways “goofed up big time on crowd management”. Following the New Delhi railway stampede, the official said that “we should all hang our heads in shame”.

The stampede at New Delhi Railway Station on Saturday night left 18 passengers dead and several injured. The Railways said that almost 2600 tickets were sold at the station in two-hour time between 6-8 PM.

“It is a pity that Northern Railway, specifically the Delhi Division, which has a tested and proven protocol of crowd handling, goofed up big time,” said Subhranshu, a former Executive Director in the Railway Board, in a post in Linkedin.

The former official faulted the “new system of hiring senior officials by the Railways”, saying it “failed multiple times over the past 2-3 years”.

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“Senior officers are now being appointed after unprecedented levels of check and scrutiny – Emotional Quotient, 360-degree evaluation and a supposedly objective system of pick-and-choose. Yet the new system has failed multiple times over the last 2-3 years and killed hundreds upon hundreds,” added Subhranshu.

The former official feared that a “junior functionary will be quickly named and punished, and every level of middle and senior management will go back to doing more of the same”.

“We should hang our heads in shame,” added the former official. He stated that the “stampede at the New Delhi Railway Station was the result, where 18 innocent and unsuspecting Maha Kumbh goers were crushed to death and several more injured, of not following the protocol of crowd management”.

“Their (Delhi Station of the Northern railways) crowd management practices have been honed over decades of handling even bigger crowds going for Chhath, Durga Puja, and Holi in exactly the same direction – East. It is not that the Maha Kumbh rush happened only on February 15,” added the former official.

He stated that “crowds were gathering and travelling for over a month now. The CCTV records of earlier days can establish that. Yet none bothered to plan for it (surge of passengers).”

“Blame is being laid at the travellers – they congregated in huge numbers; they bought a large number of tickets; and announcements were not heeded properly. But security and commercial staff, let alone senior officers, were absent from their posts,” said the former Railway official.

Subhranshu also stated that “none of these is unprecedented – crowds have come, special trains have been run, tickets have been sold, officers have been absent on many earlier occasions”. “Yet no failure was anticipated, no plans made. They just had to replicate the Chhath arrangements,” stated the former Railway official.
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