Gasping for breath, no official seen

Umesh Giri, 45, was at Lok Nayak hospital, nursing a fracture on his left foot, but paid his injury no heed - he had just received news that his wife Silam Devi was one of the 18 people killed in the stampede at New Delhi Railway Station on Saturday.

- Hemani Bhandari and Jignasa Sinha

Karn Pratap Singh, Jignasa Sinha and Hemani Bhandari [e-mail] NEW DELHI: The Indian railways got autopsies conducted on the bodies of Saturday's stampede victims at three city hospitals through the night, gave ex-gratia relief of ₹10 lakh in cash to the kin of each deceased at the mortuaries, arranged ambulances and dispatched the bodies along with their relatives accompanied by a security person to their respective hometowns within hours, railway and police officials said on Sunday.

Apart from ₹10 lakh paid to each bereaved family, railway authorities paid ex-gratia relief of ₹2.5 lakh in cash to three seriously injured victims and ₹1 lakh each to another 12 wounded passengers, who received medical attention at city hospitals.

"All the compensation has been given to the near relatives (of the dead and injured people) in cash by Northern Railways. It was distributed from morning to 8pm," Dilip Kumar, executive director (information & publicity), Railway Board, said.

According to a ministry of railways' press release of September 22, 2023, available on the Press Information Bureau's (PIB's) website, central government guidelines stipulate that "a maximum amount of up to ₹50,000 to be paid in cash as an immediate relief for taking care of initial expenses" to the victims' families while the remaining amount would be paid by account payee cheque, RTGS, NEFT, or any other online payment mode.

A retired legal officer, who was part of the claims commission formed to release compensation to the victims of the 2020 Delhi riots, said on condition of anonymity that in normal course, the ex-gratia amount is paid only after going through the entire protocol, which includes verification of the victims and of their family members, deaths and injuries, and the amount is released through cheques or transferred to bank accounts.