Lack of medical facilities in Railways: Something 'terribly wrong', says SC

The Supreme Court has said that there was something "terribly wrong" with the Railways which has failed to provide adequate medical facility in trains and stations resulting in deaths of passengers in some cases.

Even the Railways has last week admitted in Lok Sabha that over 1,600 passengers died on board trains in the past three years.

"You (Railways) do not have even the basic first aid facility? You are not telling us about it. If it (medical facility) is not there, then there is something terribly wrong," a bench of justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta said.

The hard hitting remarks by the apex court came while it was hearing a matter related to the death of a man at the platform of Vijayawada railway station after de-boarding a train.

The National Consumer Dispute Redressal Commission (NCDRC), which had heard the case earlier, had observed that he had died due to heart attack.

The top court asked the counsel appearing for the Railway Board to file an affidavit within two weeks giving details of the medical facilities at railway stations.

The apex court was hearing an appeal filed by the Railway Board against the February 20 judgement of the NCDRC which had upheld the Rs 10 lakh compensation awarded by a state consumer commission to the widow of the deceased.

Referring to the facts of the case, the bench wondered, "A person had collapsed at the railway station. He was lying there for hours and no one gave him medical help."