No stampede at New Delhi station: panel

NEW DELHI, MAY 17
The incident at the New Delhi railway station which claimed two lives and injured eight others happened due to tripping of passengers at the foot over bridge and not due to a stampede on the platform, Northern Railway said tonight.
“Prime facie it transpires that there was no stampede like conditions on platform no. 12 and 13,” the high-powered committee set up to probe it said in its preliminary report, adding “the findings were arrived based on video footage available through CCTV installed at the platforms.”
The high-powered committee which was constituted today submitted its initial report to the Railway  Ministry after preliminary investigation.
“It appears that it was probably some local condition near the foot over bridge (FOB) caused by unfortunate tripping which may have resulted in the unfortunate incident,” said the report.
The high-powered three-member committee comprises Braj Mohan, Additional Member (Commercial) Railway Board, S K Malik, Additional Member (Civil Engineering) Railway Board and P K Mehta, Additional Director General, Railway Protection Force (RPF), Northern Railway.
Senior railway officials had earlier in the day indicated that some heads might roll for failing to prevent yesterday’s incident.
Northern Railways is now planning to rope in services of the Delhi police for better crowd management during the peak season. It plans to engage Home Guards of Delhi Police at the three major stations in the metropolis.
The sale of platform tickets was also stopped from today to reduce crowding on platforms.