Jyotiraditya Scindia saves life of fellow passenger in Shatabdi Express

When Suresh Prabhu assumed charge of the Indian Railways, it was with a promise that within a couple of years, all trains in the country will be equipped with the best facilities, including pre-medical assistance, however, Prabhu did not come even close to what he had promised, before he had to unceremoniously leave his portfolio due to several train derailments.

Although Prabhu was replaced by Piyush Goyal who is considered to be quite a dynamic politician and brilliant strategist, it remains to be seen what improvements he may bring in the functioning of the Indian Railways, where a young girl from Agra nearly died while travelling in the Bhopal Shatabdi Express, when she had a heart attack on the outer signal of Delhi and the Railways could not provide her any medical assistance.

It was only after her fellow passenger and Guna MP Jyotiraditya Scindia intervened by calling up Piyush Goyal himself, that the girl could be provided emergency medical assistance and transported to a nearby hospital where she is currently being treated.

According to the available information, Vandana was traveling from Agra to Delhi by Bhopal Shatabdi Express on Friday night. Young Congress leader and titular Maharaja of Gwalior, Jyotiraditya Scindia was also traveling in the same coach. At the outer signal of Delhi, the train was stopped for nearly 150 minutes by the railways without assigning any reason for stopping the train for such a long time. Around midnight, the girl, who was sitting across Scindia, felt chest pain and collapsed. Reacting quickly, the Guna MP contacted the train guard and driver for emergency medical facilities available in the train, only to be told that there were no such facilities on board the train.

Without wasting time, Scindia called up newly appointed railway minister Piyush Goyal and the Divisional Railway Manager (North Central Railways) in Agra for assistance. Despite his best efforts, the ambulance sent by the railways could only arrive around 2:30 am, which took Vandana to a hospital in Delhi. Scindia accompanied the ambulance to the hospital, where the doctors informed him that any more delay in bringing the girl to the hospital could have been fatal for her. The quick reaction of the MP is now drawing praise from all sections of the society.

Reacting to this news, Agra Tourist Welfare Chamber Secretary Vishal Sharma said that if such an incident did happen in the Shatabdi Express, it was indeed unfortunate as the Shatabdi Express is considered a VIP train which is given operational priority over normal railway traffic. Stopping the train for this long at the outer signal and then failing to provide medical assistance to a seriously ill passenger are both very alarming examples of callousness on the part of the railways.

He said that hundreds of tourists travel on the Shatabdi Express between Agra and Delhi every day and such a lackadaisical attitude of the Railways towards ensuring the basic facilities in important tourist trains clearly indicates that despite employing a mammoth workforce, the railways lacks professionalism and requires a complete reboot to bring it into a lean and healthy shape.

He said that it is surprising that the railways have not been able to provide pre-medical facilities in important trains like Rajdhani and Shatabdi Express, despite several assurances given by the various railway ministers in this regard. It is clear that either the ministers are cut-off from the ground reality in the railways, or the railway bureaucracy does not really care for the orders given by ministers because the bureaucrats are permanent, whereas ministers are temporary.

Sharma suggested that the railways should post emergency contact numbers, including the numbers of concerned ministers and railway officials in every coupe of the train, so that the passengers may contact them directly in case the railways is unable to provide immediate assistance to them during an emergency.

Similarly, he said, the Taj Mahal caters to thousands of tourists every day but lacks even the basic first-aid facilities inside the monument. There is no way to carry a tourist from the main dome to the gate of the monument, which is over 250 meters away, except physically in a stretcher and on top of that, there is no ambulance posted permanently at the gate of the monument, so if a tourist suffers from a heart attack inside the monument, it will most probably prove fatal to him in the present conditions.

Sharma said that the Agra Tourist Welfare Chamber has written several times to the Archaeological Survey of India and the Agra Development Authority, apart from the Tourism Minister Mahesh Sharma for providing medical facilities in the Taj Mahal, Agra Fort, and Fatehpur Sikri, all three being monuments spread over a large area. However, nothing concrete has been done in this direction till date.