'Mamata, Maya responsible for athlete incident'

Expressing shock at volleyball player Arunima Sinha being thrown out of a train in Bareilly, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday held both Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati responsible for the incident.

"The BJP is shocked at the incident of a lady being thrown out from a train. She is a volleyball player of national stature. She was lying unattended on the railway tracks for six hours. This is tragic and absolutely shocking," BJP spokesperson Nirmala Sitharaman said.

Holding both Banerjee and Mayawati responsible for the incident, she said while it shows how unsafe women passengers are in trains it is also an index of the poor law and order scenario in Uttar Pradesh. "This is an utter failure of Mamata Banerjee's railways. Shows the inefficiency with which the railways is functioning and how there is no safety for women passengers. She should leave her election campaigning for a day and meet the victim to see for herself why this incident took place," Sitharaman said.

The BJP has demanded that Banerjee accept responsibility for the incident and fix accountability of the Government Railway Police and other railway officials in the sloppiness shown in handling the case. "The future of this lady has been shattered. An inquiry should be conducted into how this incident had come to pass. Both Railways and UP government are equally responsible for this state of affairs. Women are not safe in UP," she said.

The opposition party lamented the fact that such an incident had taken place despite women at the helm of affairs of both the railways and UP.