Title - Clarification sought from railway staff

JANAKPURDHAM: The acting general manager of Janakpur-Jaynagar Railway has sought written clarifications from five staffers a day after a train engine rattled along the track and completed a 29-km journey all by itself, without a driver.Acting general manager Rameshwor Yadav has demanded written clarification from five railway staffers including its Loko department in-Saroj Kumar Hathi, foreman Rajendra Raut, Jayanagar station master Khadga Narayan Chaudhary, driver Rafid Kawari and assistant driver Jagadish Khatwe.Among them, Hathi was supposed to check technical aspects of the engine before it was started while foreman Raut was supposed to fix who was to drive the engine.“I have instructed them to submit written clarifications within 24 hours. Once we get their clarifications, the cause of yesterday’s incident will come to light,” said Yadav.It all began yesterday when assistant driver Khatwe had driven the train to Jayanagar despite the fact that he was not supposed to do that. At Jayanagar, as he stepped out of his cabin leaving the engine roaring at about 3.20 pm, the train detached from its buggies and started moving on its own. It only came to a halt on a damaged track in Janakpur 45 minutes later.Although the railway Loko department has said ‘air pressure’ kept the train moving, other drivers have refused to buy the claim.

Meanwhile, the train involved in yesterday’s incident has been kept out of service for investigation.

Regarding the same incident, district administration office of Dhanusha summoned driver Rafid Kawari and assistant driver Jagadish Khatwe and sought clarifications. Kawari, in his clarification, argued the department had fixed his name as the driver for the day although he was at home on leave.