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PRESS TRUST OF INDIA
CALCUTTA, AUG 6: Mass cremation of 204 unidentified bodies of the victims of Gaisal train disaster would be completed tonight on the bed of Balasan river, West Bengal Home (Police) Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharjee said.
Briefing newspersons about the latest situation regarding identification of the bodies, Bhattacharjee said that only 85 of the 289 bodies have been identified by the relatives at North Bengal Medical College Hospital (NBMCH) and New Jalpaiguri Railway Hospital (NJRH).
Only 23 family members reached New Jalpaiguri station today by a special train from Delhi at 3 pm. They later identified only five bodies all at the NBMCH.
Of the 85 bodies identified, 59 were at NBMCH, 14 at NJRH and 22 by Army authority from the spot, he said. All the identified bodies had been handed over to the relatives.
Mass cremation would begin at 7 pm and would be completed tonight as these decomposed and mutilated unclaimed bodies could not be kept lying further, he said adding that necessary permission from theMagistrate has already been taken and snaps of the unclaimed bodies taken.
He wondered why the response from the relatives was so poor as only a few turned up to identify victims.
The state government has so far released Rs 5.5 lakh to the District Magistrates of Jalpaiguri, Darjeeling and North Dinajpur for rescue operation and cremation of the victims.
Relatives of the mishap victims who arrived by a special train from New Delhi had the slightest hint of the whereabouts of their near and dear ones. There was no mention of the names of some of the victims among the list of the dead or injured.
Basanta Roy from Delhi could not find his brother's body in the morgue, nor was the name in the list of injured. A disconsolate Ravi Mandal from Katihar was also wandering around after failing to trace his father Gagan Mandal, a railway employee who had boarded the ill-fated Brahmaputra Mail.
Ajit Bora, who had come from Assam by bus, stood grief-stricken and motionless after failing to find his brotherHavildar Prafulla Bora, Prafulla's wife Pratima and two children Puna (seven) and Diganta (three years). However, Lalan Singh from Guwahati managed to identify one of his brothers Binod while failing to trace another Arjun, wife Devi and their two-year old child.
Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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This story was printed from Net Express located at http://www.expressindia.com. Net Express provides a portal to India, with news from The Indian Express and The Financial Express along with sites on travel and tourism, the entertainment industry, the power sector, the environment and much more.
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