Kin still searching for relatives missing after accident

Thirty six hours after the derailment of the Indore-Patna Express, kin of those missing were still frantically searching for their loved ones.

Distraught relatives have been pouring into hospitals at Akbarpur, the headquarter of Kanpur Dehat district, where the victims of the mishap were shifted. There were, however, complaints by harried relatives of ill treatment by doctors at the Hallet Hospital and GRP personnel at railway stations when they sought help to find their missing kin.

Kamala Devi, a resident of Rura, who has been searching for her son Rajiv Kumar, said that the she was made to run from one hospital to another by the doctors.

Kamala said that her son’s name was in the list of the dead. She tried unsuccessfully to meet the Chief Secretary Rahul Bhatnagar to narrate her ordeal. Brijnath, a resident of Kanpur who sustained injuries and was admitted to the hospital, said his wife was missing.

“My relatives have been trying to trace her but so far we have not succeeded,” he said, lying on the bed at the hospital.

The survivors also complained of “extortion” by private hospitals, where the injured had been sent for treatment after the mishap. Some private hospitals reportedly demanded money before beginning treatment. The survivors, who left for their destinations by buses specially arranged by the railways, said that they had to pay fare to travel, and those who could not were forced to alight.