Where did the Railways get Rs 2 crore to distribute cash at 4 am on Sunday?
#News Bureau February 17,2025
The families of those killed or injured in the stampede at New Delhi Railway Station have received compensation and most of them are getting treatment from their own pockets in private hospitals. This is the first time in the history of railways or any such incident that compensation has been distributed in cash to the victim families. Usually, the government always gives cheques or bank transfers for such compensation. But the railways, which is authorized to distribute the compensation of Rs 50,000, started giving cash money to the victims from 4 am on Sunday. Each family of the deceased person received Rs 10 lakh in cash.
Umesh Giri and his two children, who live in Kiradi (Nangloi) in Delhi, are undergoing treatment in a private hospital. The whole family was going to take a bath in the Prayagraj Maha Kumbh. Umesh Giri’s wife Seelam Devi became a victim of this accident and died. Umesh Giri’s family told Satya Hindi on the phone that they had received Rs 10 lakh cash compensation on Sunday morning itself. When asked what was the reason for this accident, who was responsible, the family did not answer.
This is not the story of Giri family alone. This is the story of most of the families of the dead and injured. People undergoing treatment in private hospitals say that the compensation they have received is being spent on their treatment. Thankfully, they got the compensation. When they were asked why they were not being treated in a government hospital, they did not even answer this question.
Now it has become common news that the railways distributed cash on a large scale to the families of the victims killed in the stampede outside the mortuaries of three hospitals in Delhi. Bundles of cash up to Rs 10 lakh were handed over to each family of each deceased. According to the police and the railways, at least 18 people died in the stampede at the station. By Sunday afternoon, almost all the bodies were picked up from three hospitals – Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan Hospital and Lady Harding Hospital and taken to their homes.
On Sunday morning, the railways gave Rs 10 lakh cash to the family of each deceased. Considering the death of 18 people, this amount comes to Rs 1 crore 80 lakh. The families of the rest of the injured were given compensation ranging from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 2.5 lakh. About Rs 2 crore cash was distributed. The complete list of victims is being given here for you.
Northern Railway Chief Public Relations Officer Himanshu Upadhyay has confirmed to the media that all the families were paid ex-gratia in cash. He said, “Everyone was given cash without waiting for online payment. Those who were eligible for Rs 10 lakh were also given cash.”
From CPRO to all railway officials, everyone has maintained silence on the compensation amount. The press release issued by the Railways only talks about giving ex-gratia. There is no mention of compensation in it. The rules of the Railways are coming in the way of telling this.
The 2023 guidelines of the Railways state: An amount up to a maximum of Rs 50,000 should be given in cash as immediate relief to meet the initial expenses. The remaining amount should be paid by account payee cheque/RTGS/NEFT/any other online payment mode. If the Railways deems it appropriate, the entire ex-gratia amount/enhanced ex-gratia amount can be paid by account payee cheque/RTGS/NEFT/any other online payment mode.
The reply of the PIB official in this regard is interesting. Dharmendra Tiwari, the additional director general who looks after the publicity of the Railway Ministry in PIB and the PIB officer in charge of the Railway Ministry, said that the government had announced the ex-gratia amount around 11 am. When asked, then why was the cash being distributed much before the announcement? Tiwari replied – “Even if the media was informed later, we had started implementing the orders. Therefore, we started giving cash from 4 am itself.”
No one has the answer to the question that where did the railways get the cash to distribute Rs 2 crore despite it being a Sunday. However, it is possible that the railways keeps this much cash somewhere in Delhi. But if the railways tell this in time, all doubts will be cleared. Monday is the second day when till the time of writing this report, the railways have not told anything about where did they get the Rs 2 crore from. There are other questions too, like why were the injured sent from government hospitals to private hospitals, is it not the government’s responsibility to treat the injured in government hospitals, has the government removed the injured so that the truth about the chaos and inefficiency of the railways can be hidden. The stampede at New Delhi Railway Station is a bad stain for the government which has now been recorded in history. The government did not learn anything from the stampede at Maha Kumbh Prayagraj and the result of that was the stampede at New Delhi Railway Station.
(Report and editing: Yusuf Kirmani)
