The General Manager has also been instructed to provide adequate assistance to stranded or injured passengers to reach out their families. He has been further asked to complete all enquiries regarding potential claimants from the list of the injured and dead, payment of ex-gratia and reservation charts available with the Railway. He has also been asked to publish the sample claim forms in leading local dailies for information of prospective claimants. After a decree has been passed, a copy of the judgement may be obtained immediately and cheques prepared without any delay. The concerned senior offcials have been asked to monitor these personally.

    The General Manager(Claims), N.F.Railway has already notified in the newspapers that all claim cases for compensation arising out of train accident relating to Bramaputhra Mail and Awadh-Assam Express on August 2, 1999 will be dealt with by the Railway Claims Tribual Calcutta Bench, 2, Esplanade East, Calcutta-700069. The notification has appealed the claimants to send their application to above address in the format as prescribed in Railway Claims Tribunal Act,1987. The forms are being distributed in the Station Managers’ Office at Guwahati, New Jalpaiguri and Katihar railway stations free of cost. The forms are also available in the Office of Chief Claims Officer , N.F.Railway, Maligaon.

    The limitation period for filling up of the Accident Compensation Claims has been kept one year to allow the aggrieved passengers to get over shock of the accident. Though the limits for ex-gratia relief have been fixed at Rs.15000/- to the dead, Rs.5000/- to the grieviously injurded and Rs.500/- to the simple injury, Rs.25,000/- was announced as ‘ex-gratia’ relief to the next of kith and kin of deceased passengers in the Gaisal Accident.

    The Railway Claims Tribunals were set up at 21 locations in India in 1987 to expedite the settlement of Accident Compensation Claims. As revised in 1997, Compensation of Rs.4.0 lakhs is given to the dead in the Railway Accidents. Compensation payable for injuries in these cases range from Rs.32,000/- to Rs.3,60,000/- depending upon the gravity of the sustained injuries sustained. The Chairman of the Railway Claims Tribunal has been vested with wide powers including transfer of cases from one bench to another for expeditious settlement of claims as well as holding Cirucit Benches wherever necessary. Railways have been prescribed a strict time bound implementation programme for decrees and are liable to pay interest for every day’s delay. Monitoring payment of compensation in accident cases is a continuous process both at individual Railway level and at the Railway Board..
 
 

    Shri Agarwal has outlined a number of areas related to rail safety on which immediate measures are to be taken. These include fixing of responsibility at senior level for repeated/serious unsafe working detected during surprise inspections, enforcement of Intensive night inspections, specially between zero hours to 04 hours by taking up defaulting officials, strict observance of rules by the on duty staff during all types of abnormal working and special monitoring of staff, prone to alcoholism.

    Shri Agarwal, in a strongly worded letter to the General Managers of all Zonal Railways, has ordered that all Disciplinary cases pertaining to Accidents must be completed within the next 45 days. Besides, he has asked not to permit any staff for whom Refresher Course or Periodic Medical Examination is overdue, to perform duty under any circumstances. Even minor accidents should be dealt with utmost seriousness and adequate punishments be imposed to those found responsible, he further added.
 
    In a separate ‘Appeal’ to the 16 lakh Railway employees in the wake of the Gaisal tragedy, Shri Agarwal asked them to take a pledge to make train safety the foremost concern at all times. Streesing upon discipline as the need of the hour, he cautioned that those dealing with train operation carry a very special responsibility to make sure that they follow the prescribed rules of working, without making any compromise on safety.