The Bombay high court’s direction to Central and Western Railways’ to consider setting up 15 emergency medical centres has baffled senior railway officers. They are of the view that the railways’ basic work is to transport the public, not to treat them.
A senior CR officer asked, “If our staff is engaged in looking after medical centres, how are we going to operate our trains?”
The Railways has said that their legal department was looking into the matter.
On March 19 asked the CR and WR to consider establishing emergency medical centres at each of the stations where more than 100 accidents took place in 2012. In paragraph six of the observation, the HC directed CR and WR to consider setting up centres at Kurla, Thane, Dombivali, Kalyan and Karjat, Wadala, Vashi, Panvel, Churchgate, Mumbai Central, Bandra, Andheri, Borivali, Vasai and Palghar in Vasai division. The HC also set a three-month deadline for the same.
“We are already doing our best to stop fatalities and are providing all possible emergency services in case of accidents. We have tied up with hospitals closest to the railway tracks. We have improved facilities considerably to save lives of passengers who meet with accidents,” said a senior railway officer from Western Railway.
Slamming this comment, petitioner Sameer Jhaveri said, “Railways is conducting so many parallel businesses to fill its coffers, then why it is shirking the responsibility of saving lives of valuable passengers?”
In 2008, Mr Jhaveri had filed a PIL seeking that medical facilities should be set up so that victims of railway accidents could receive medical aid in time. The high court had then directed the WR and CR to start a pilot project at Dadar and make it a “model station” by providing all necessary emergency medical services.