‘Compensation for railway accidents must be increased’ The Bombay High Court made the observation in view of inflation and falling value of rupee

Sunil.Baghel @timesgroup.com TWEET @baghels 

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    An accident has forced the Bombay High Court to observe that compensation fixed for the kin of railway accidents’ victims should be increased, considering the inflation and diminishing value of rupee. 
    The observation was made in a case filed by a Borivaliresident,MadhuriThalkiya,wholosther husband in a train accident on March 30, 2001. 
    In a judgement pronounced recently, Justice Ashok Bhangale observed, “It is desirable that this limit of compensation of Rs four lakh, payable to the dependants of the victim of untoward incidents, is further amended reasonably considering relevance of the growth of inflation and diminished value of rupee, since the last amendment was made in 1997, to enhance the quantum of compensation amount to make it reasonable, fair and equitable.” 
    Observing that reasonable time had passed since the amount was fixed, Justice Bhangale further said, “If the victim was the only earning member of the family, the hardship is more acute when the deceased has left minor children behind, who need care and attention for their upbringing and education. The compensation payable by the Railway administration is liable to the prescribed extent only and not more.” 
    Itfurthersaid,“We hope that the rule-making authority concerned would do the needful in this regard to enhance the quantum of compensation reasonably.” 
    Setting aside an order passed by the Railway Claims Tribunal, the HC granted relief to Madhuri Thalkiya after 12 years. The HC has directed the Western Railways to pay Rs 4 lakh to the petitioner, along with annual interest of nine per cent, taking the final claim to over Rs 8 lakh. 
    On the fateful day, Madhuri was travelling towards Churchgate with her 30-year-old husband Anil and their three-month-old baby in a secondclass compartment. Her husband fell down between Goregaon and Jogeshwari stations. Madhuri, who witnessed the incident, pleaded with fellow passengers to pull the chain so that the train would stop. The train, however, came to a halt only at the Jogeshwari station. 
    As per Madhuri’s case, she then reported the incident to the Jogeshwari Railway Police and went walking with them to the spot, to find that her husband was dead. 
    Railways then refused to grant her claim for compensation, saying that Anil died while illegally crossing the tracks. To substantiate their claim, the Railways produced the memo issued by the Station Master, which mentioned the same thing. 
    The HC discarded the evidence given by the Railways’ witness as well, who had stated that he was informed by some unknown person about Anil being knocked down by a train and that he did not receive memo from the either the motorman or the guard of the local. 
    Recovery of two bonafide local tickets from Anil’s pocket too nailed the Railways. Observing that the “hearsay version” of railway employees was “clearly motivated to save Railway Administration from the liability to pay compensation,” the tribunal should have believed Madhuri’s version, said the court. 
    “Preponderance of probabilities was clearly in favour of the claimant (Madhuri). The liability of railway administration is strict,” the court observed, while passing the judgement in Madhuri’s favour.

The HC has directed the Western Railways to pay Rs 4 lakh to the petitioner

‘Most homes are dengue hotbeds’

Sumitra Deb Roy TNN 

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Mumbai: The civic body claims that 85% of breeding spots for dengue mosquitoes was either inside houses or some place very close to the homes of those affected by the virus. The BMC has therefore put the onus on citizens to curb the spread of dengue that has claimed three lives this week. 
    Aday after the death of Devendra Singh (41) from Malwani due to suspected dengue, the insecticide department has swung into action and carried out intensive vector control activities. “We found that a drum used to store water and kept behind his house was as a breeding ground. We found eggs of Aedes Egypti mosquito there. Near Singh’s home, there were six breeding spots,” said Rajan Naringrekar, BMC’s chief insecticide officer. 
    Before the Malwani case, two consecutive deaths were reported from Goregaon’s Shastri Nagar and Motilal Nagar. In these areas, too, Naringrekar said the breeding grounds were flower pots and petri dishes kept inside houses. At Shastri Nagar, as many as 21 breeding sites were found on building premises, including terraces. 
    Shastri Nagar resident Santosh Ghodke, who got discharged from the Siddharth Hospital after five days of hospitalization, said they found breeding spots near watertanks on the building’s terrace. He said around 8 others from his society, Jay Rajratna, were affected by dengue. 
    The spurt in dengue may not be restricted to Goregaon alone as doctors across the city say there has been a rise. 
    Over 400 positive cases have been reported. Compared to this, there were five dengue deaths in 2012. Maharashtra has recorded the highest number of deaths in the country at 31, along with 1,818 positive cases.

Check CR local status online in a month

Manthan K Mehta TNN 

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Mumbai: Central Railway commuters will be able to track real-time location of trains across the suburban network on a dedicated website—trainenquiry.com—or the pan-India train inquiry number 139 within a month. The information will help commuters alter their travel plans if there is a delay in or cancellation of a preferred service. 
    The project, which is nearing completion, will come as a relief to lakhs of CR commuters. The CR suburban network operates around 1,618 services per day on all its three lines—main, harbour as well as trans-harbour. 
    Commuters will not just be able to track a train’s exact location but also the preceding and following two stations. 
    It is the Control Office Application (COA) that currently monitors the movement of long-distance trains across the country in real time through a computer-aided interface. It was developed by the Centre for Railway Information System (CRIS)—the information technology arm of Indian Railways. The COA enables passengers to track the movement of both scheduled and unscheduled trains on the website or on 139. 
    CR divisional general manager Mukesh Nigam said, “Till now, one can only track the movement of long-distance trains because the suburban network is not completely integrated with the COA.” 
    Nigam further said he was keen on this integration to capitalize on the use of mobile phones. Moreover, in a busy city such as Mumbai, commuters would benefit from updated information on trains, he said. 
    The suburban network is a challenging task, Nigam said, as certain stretches run on four corridors while long-distance trains operate on two. The average frequency of services on the main line is f our minutes and harbour line five minutes.

A FATAL RIDE ON A LIFELINE. Woman train commuter brain dead after falling prey to thief

George Mendonca & Nitasha Natu TNN 

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Navi Mumbai: A woman commuter is extremely critical after a robber lurking near a pole by the trans-harbour railway line struck her with a hooked stick, knocking her off a running train, on Thursday evening. As she lay unconscious and bleeding by the tracks between Ghansoli and Rabale, the thief robbed her ornaments and handbag and fled. Her colleagues rescued her and took her to hospital, where doctors said she is brain dead. 
    Aarti Gholapkar, 43, who lives in Dombivli with her daughter, was returning home after work at a shirt factory in Pawane MIDC. As the railway police’s escort duty begins at 8.30pm, there was no policeman in the coach. Victim’s colleagues say cops arrived late, family in shock Habitual Offender Detained, Youths Near Tracks Under Lens 
    A company bus had dropped off factory worker Aarti Gholapkar and her colleagues at Koparkhairane station and she and some of her colleagues had boarded the ladies second-class compartment of a 7.15pm train to Thane. 
    Gholapkar was standing on the foot-board as the train pulled out of Ghansoli station. “Around 7.30pm, an unidentified person standing near a pole struck her with a stick that had a sharp hook at one end to knock off her handbag. Gholapkar, taken by surprise, fell off the train. Finding her unconsciousness, the robber stole her gold mangalsutra and a pair of earrings worth Rs 26,000, apart from her handbag, and fled,” said a GRP official. 
    Gholapkar’s colleagues got off at the next station, Rabale, informed a motorman about the incident and rushed down the tracks to rescue her. She was taken to Criti Care Hospital at Thane and admitted in ICCU. 
    “Aarti’s condition is critical. She has sustained diffuse axonal injury to her head, due to which her brain has been severely damaged. She has internal bleeding in the brain and multiple haemorrhages. On medical grounds, she is brain dead,” said Dr Santosh Rathi, the neurologist treating her. 
    The motorman told the Rabale station master, who called the Vashi GRP. By the time the police came, Gholapkar had been taken to hospital. 
    The GRP has registered a case of robbery under sections 394 (causing hurt while committing robbery) and 397 (robbery or dacoity) and detained a suspect. “We have picked up a suspect from Mumbra who has been involved in similar offences in the past. We have formed teams to question youths loitering around tracks,” said P Karyakarte, senior inspector, Vashi GRP. 
    Gholapkar’s mother and brother, Abhay Kanekar, have rushed to the hospital from Chiplun. “Aarti has never harmed anyone and I can’t understand why something so terrible had to happen to her,” her mother said, fighting back tears. “The robber should be caught and lynched so that he never repeats something like this.” 
    Gholapkar’s colleagues Avanti Sahu and Gitanjali Bandekar, who were among those who took her to hospital, said most of the commuters were mute spectators and even the cops turned up much later. 
    In a similar incident at Chinchpokli barely an hour before the Rabale case, a robber hit three women travelling on the footboard of a crowded local with a stick and stole a cell phone. “Had the girl who dropped her phone not clasped the vertical rod at the coach door tightly, she would have fallen,” said a mediaperson who witnessed the incident around 6.15pm. No complaint was lodged.

Aarti Gholapkar, 43, fell off a train between Ghansoli and Rabale stations on Wednesday evening after being hit with a stick by a robber standing next to the tracks. As she lay bleeding and unconscious, the thief proceeded to rob her of her bag and ornaments

THE NEWS AS IT APPEARED IN MUMBAI MIRROR

Hook used to snatch CR commuter’s bag leaves her brain dead Horrified fellow travellers watch 43-yr-old fall off Nazia.Sayed @timesgroup.com  TWEETS @_MumbaiMirror  http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Scripting/ArticleWin.asp?From=Archive&Source=Page&Skin=MIRRORNEW&BaseHref=MMIR/2013/09/07&PageLabel=3&EntityId=Ar00300&ViewMode=HTML     Forty three-year-old Dombivli resident and Central Railway commuter Arti Gholapkar was left brain dead after a horrifying ordeal on Thursday evening when she was returning home to her daughter.      Gholapkar was standing at the footboard of a Thane-bound train that she took daily when around 7.30 pm the train made an unscheduled but not unusual stop between Ghansoli and Rabale. The mother of one was chatting away with her office colleagues from the Turbhe-based Shirt India Pvt Ltd where she works as a clerk. Unknown to her, a man armed with a fishing line and a hook was perched high on a pole just opposite her compartment. As the train halted, the thief flung out the line angling for Gholapkar’s handbag which was hanging from her shoulder. The fishing hook landed with such force that it not only pulled at her handbag, it also left her struggling for balance. In front of her horrified co-passengers' eyes, she toppled over, falling into the tall grass below. Her head hit the pole on which the thief was perched as she fell. The thief who came down the pole, and his accomplice, waiting in the tall grass, dragged her off deeper into the bushes where they took off her jewellery and rifled through her handbag before disappearing into the bushes around, leaving her bleeding near the tracks.      Twenty-five commuters, many of whom were Gholapkar’s collegues, travelling on the same train, rushed back from the next station, Rabale, and took her to a hospital where doctors said the extent of her injuries was grave. “We had some idea of where she had fallen but we could not immediately locate her,” said her colleague Joseph Anthony Sebastian, 23 -- “I spotted her sandals near the pole and then we found her lying unconscious, blood oozing from her head.” These commuters then bravely stood in the middle of the tracks and stopped the next oncoming train. They, and the motorman, bundled her in and took her to Lifeline Hospital at Airoli. In view of the severity of her injuries Gholapkar was shifted to Ayush Hospital and from where to the better-equipped Criticare, Thane.      “I leave home before mom does and the last conversation I had with her was in the afternoon when she called me to say that there was food in the fridge and that I need not make dinner…and now here she is fighting for life,”saidGholapkar’s daughter Raveena, left stunned by the turn of events.      “Gholapkar is in a critical condition and is brain dead. We are waiting for the family to take a call,” said Dr Santosh Rathi of Criticare Hospital, who is treating her.      Devanand Harap, one of Gholapkar’s colleagues, said this was the third such incident which had happened with their office staff. “In the previous two cases, the ladies were not injured and only their handbag was snatched. This is the same spot where it happens and yet the police pay no heed.”     Senior inspector S. Karyekarte of Vashi GRP said a case has been registered and investigations have begun.

MMRDA raises doubts over monorail safety

Chittaranjan Tembhekar TNN

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Mumbai: Will phase I of the monorail, which is to open by September 15, be safe, secure and reliable? In fact, will it be able to start operations on target even after five years of construction? Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) officials have threatened its developers with a heavy penalty if it does not.
    MMRDA officials have now raised serious doubts about the quality of trains and safety standards for commuters. They also doubt it will be able to start operations for Mumbaikars on schedule.
    MMRDA is developing the route by paying Rs2,800 crore. At a review meeting on August 28, attended by officials of the contractors, L&T Scomi Engineering (LTSE) and consultants, the Louis Berger Group, metropolitan commissioner U P S Madan expressed displeasure and deep concern over the lack of safety of the system.
    TOI has learned that he referred to the latest incident of a panel door falling off, which luckily did not hit passersby. He emphasized that the state of affairs was “totally unacceptable”.
    Additional metropolitan commissioner Ashwini Bhide said even after spending Rs1,700 crore it was a pity that MMRDA did not have trains fit to run. She said that due to non-availability of trains, plans for tests had failed. “This is a serious reflection on the contractor’s capability,” she added.
    MMRDA spokesperson Dilip Kawathkar said, “Three trains are running in automatic schedule since morning and have been tested for schedule adherence, stability and robustness. This is definitely a milestone for monorail signaling.” But he could not confirm the date of opening.

31% WR commuters want more suburban services Faulty Fans, Lights Figure High On List Of Complaints

Manthan K Mehta TNN

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Mumbai: A demand for more train services tops the list of complaints from Western Railway commuters, followed by reports of malfunctioning equipment in suburban train coaches.
    Data compiled from the list of complaints sent through SMS by commuters between April-July 2013 reveals that nearly 31% of commuters sought augmentation in services. Equipment malfunction (fan, lights, etc) followed with 22% complaints. Stoppages for long-distance trains at particular stations was another major demand, 8% were unhappy with passenger amenities, 7%
were upset with ticket-checking, 5% with security, 4% cleanliness and 3% had ticketing complaints. While 7% had miscellaneous complaints, 11% complaints were unclear, 2% users appreciated the services.
    WR’s chief public relations officer Sharat Chandrayan said, “The number of complaints have reduced to 668 in April-July 2013 from 917 in the same period in the corresponding period last year.”
    Nevertheless, he said, complaints registered using this service are taken extremely seriously as these are monitored at the level of the principal heads of departments. Nearly 31% or a total of 211 commuters have made complaints about train services. Chandrayan said, “These include stoppages demanded for long-distance trains too. Many also want locals originating or terminating from their destinations.”
    The second most important grouse was malfunctioning of equipment, as nearly 22% of respondents complained about the poor quality of fans and non-functioning lights. A senior railway official said, “The situation has improved progressively as the number of complaints on this front also reduced from 185 last year to 152 this year during the same period. It will further improve with the induction of new rakes in the system.”
    The least complaints were about ticketing. WR caters to nearly 35 lakh commuters per day. A senior WR official said, “We have 332 windows, 450 CVMs and 195 ATVMS spread across 35 stations. The average time at a booking window at the busiest stations like Dadar or Bhayander is 16 minutes during peak hour and 5 minutes during non-peak hour.”
    However, commuters were unhappy with ticket-checking, with as many as 7% expressing displeasure on this front. Borivli resident Sonal Mehta said, “The first-class compartment is occupied by unauthorized ticket holders. It is extremely unjust as we pay a premium.”
Times View: Some of the common commuter peeves have been there for some time. Augmentation of services is one such demand. It may not be possible to increase services to every commuter’s complete satisfaction but some projects have been delayed because of lack of planning (TOI report on September 3). Fans and lights also may malfunction occasionally and users must share a part of the blame for dirty coaches and toilets. But long-standing grievances do indicate that action following feedback has not satisfied the user.

Stray problem dogs local train commuters

Virat A Singh virat.singh@timesgroup.com TWEETS @singhvirat246 

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    To catch or not to catch, that is the question for suburban railway officials who are in a spot over the rising canine population on station platforms. Complaints from commuters about stray dogs are piling up, but rail authorities worry that any action on their part to remove them might lead to protests from animal lovers. 
    Commuters say that dogs sometimes chase them on platforms, or bark threateningly at them or fight among each other, sending people scuttling away to keep their distance.There is fear that commuters trying to dodge dogs at platforms might fall off into the rail pit or be hit by a train. 
    Andheri resident, banker Amit Das, himself a dog lover who takes care of a few strays at Yari Road, fears that someone scared of dogs might meet with an accident while scrambling to avoid one. “Recently I saw a woman who almost fell off as she was trying to avoid a barking dog that rushed towards her at Andheri,” he said. 
    Like Das, Mulund resident Kusum Rane is no dog hater either. She and other commuters have appealed to the Mulund station master to seek NGO help to relocate the dogs at the station using humane methods. Some of the Mulund station dogs charge at other dogs that are strangers in the area; this creates apanic on the platform and people run hither and thither fearing they might be bitten, she said. 
    For railway officials, weighed down with complaints about toilets, foot over-bridges, criminals, and other matters, dealing with animal lovers is a task that they would rather avoid. One of them said he feared being accused by animal lovers of wasting time tackling a dog problem when there are more serious issues begging attention. 
    “It is obvious that railway authorities fear that there could be a backlash from the animal lovers if they get BMC tore move the dogs, as several dog lovers feed the strays on railway platforms,” said Madhu Kotian, President of Mumbai Rail Pravasi Sangh. Her constituents have complained of dogs who nap near ticket windows, forcing people to stand in crooked queues, and of dogs who run around on platforms forcing people along their path to scatter. She too wants the railways to tie up with animal rights NGOs. Also, if a dog bites somebody, whose responsibility would it be, the railways’ or the BMC’s? Who will be liable to pay for medication and treatment. 
    Sunish Subramanian, Founder of PAWS, said: “The railways should contact BMC who could get the dogs sterilised so that their population does not rise. Also they can contact local NGOs who can help vaccinate the dogs.” He added that the railways should also ensure cleanliness so that dogs don’t come foraging at the platforms for food. 
    Sharat Chandrayan, chief PRO for Western Railway, agreed that there have been rising complaints from people about stray dogs. “We have written to BMC and are awaiting suggestions and actions from their end as we can do nothing in this matter,” he said.

Commuters say that stray dogs sometimes chase them on platforms, or bark threateningly at them