Rs 10L ex-gratia for families of train accident victims from Andhra

Amaravati, June 4: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y. S. Jagan Mohan Reddy on Sunday directed the officials to pay ex-gratia to the families of passengers from the state who died or were injured in the Odisha train accident.

At a review meeting held here on relief and rescue operations, the Chief Minister told them to pay ex-gratia of Rs 10 lakh each to the kin of the deceased, Rs 5 lakh each to those seriously injured and Rs 1 lakh each to those who sustained minor injuries.

This is in addition to the financial help extended by the Centre.

He asked about the details of Andhra Pradesh passengers who died or sustained injuries in the accident.

Officials told him that a passenger from Srikakulam district who was a resident of Balasore in Odisha died in the accident and there are no other reports of deaths or injuries with regard to passengers from the state.

The Andhra Pradesh chief minster was also apprised about the action taken by the IAS officers' committee that visited the accident site.

The committee is working under the supervision of Minister G. Amarnath.

Another Minister B. Satyanarayana, who is coordinating with the officials from Visakhapatnam, told mediapersons that they received the information that 695 passengers from Andhra Pradesh were travelling in the two trains.

While 484 people were on Coromandel Express, the remaining 211 were travelling by Yesvantpur Express.

The minister said 553 passengers were safe while 92 of them told the officials that they were not on board at the time of the accident.

The minister said 28 passengers were not responding to phone calls and the officials were sent to their houses. Another 22 passengers sustained minor injuries and they were undergoing treatment in hospitals.

The minister said details were not yet known about those travelling in unreserved coaches. Minister Amarnath and officials were visiting different hospitals to gather information.

"As per the information we received, 180 bodies have not yet been identified," Satyanarayana said.