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Authorities in Jaunpur have contradicted the railway administration's sabotage theory on the derailment of the Patna-bound Shramjeevi Express near Jaunpur in Uttar Pradesh on Sunday morning.
While even Railway Minister Nitish Kumar suspected "sabotage", District Magistrate Chandra Bhanu blamed the accident, which killed 12 people, on "poor maintenance" of the passenger coaches and rail track.
Injured passengers told the police of a noisy and shaky coach that suggested a loose wheel. They said despite repeated complaints at Varanasi and Lucknow, the railway staff did not check the problem.
"The Shramjeevi Express, which normally goes via Sultanpur, was diverted on this track on account of another derailment of a goods train on Saturday on its usual route," the district magistrate said.
"Perhaps the driver was unaware of a weak culvert that was not meant to take a superfast train like Shramjeevi Express and the caution sign put up near the culvert was not visible at night," he said.
A retired senior railway officer, who has been associated with the organisation's research and development, also denied the sabotage theory. "I think the sabotage theory is being planted by the top railway brass only to shield their erring engineers, who often neglect maintenance of the tracks," he told rediff.com
A serving officer narrated a similar case where an engineer who had complained of negligence was targeted by his own colleagues.
"This happened in Bhopal recently where a senior railway operations officer was recently penalised by the top railway brass for lodging an FIR against the concerned civil engineer and the contractor, who had not cared to get old and worn wooden sleepers removed from a renovated rail track," he said on condition of anonymity.
Meanwhile, reports said more than 600 labourers were engaged in repair and relief operations at Sunday's accident site, but the damaged track was yet to be made operational.
PTI ALSO READ Rail traffic on mishap route to be restored by Tuesday Statutory inquiry ordered into train mishap Survivors glad to reach Patna Inquiry into train mishap to begin soon: Sandhu 12 killed, 49 injured as Shramjeevi Express derails More reports on Bihar More reports on Uttar Pradesh
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