Mishap victims left in the lurch

By K. Srinivas Reddy

HYDERABAD, FEB. 7. The old and infirm people of Devarakadra and other villages in Mahbubnagar district came to Hyderabad to get their sight restored through a cataract operation promised to be performed free, by a charity hospital in Chaitanyapuri in Hyderabad. But most have landed in the Osmania General Hospital, with fractures and bruises when they were hit by a train as they were crossing the railway line at the Kachiguda Railway Station last night, with no one to take them home and give them food and water.

Tragedy struck this group as three women, Kurmakka, Balamma and Kurmamma were killed and 11 were injured in the ghastly accident. About 50 of them arrived at the station by train and were crossing the track to come out of the station, when a local train was arriving at the platform. The aged people, most of them partially blind, apparently could not notice the approaching train and were caught on the track.

The condition of those elderly people at the Osmania General Hospital was quite pathetic. One woman with her leg in bandage was pleading for help to go to toilet, but the ward had no bed pans or utensils, and there was no one to help. These patients were brought by an attendant of the Charity Hospital, with the promise of sending them back to their villages in a day with new glasses and food in the day, but after this accident, the attendant vanished and the elderly people were left to fend for themselves.

Even as the other passengers on the platform noticed the old people standing transfixed either on the track or in the gap between the track and the platform, the train rolled in. ``Everything happened in seconds. People were shouting at us. I was in the middle of the track along with my mother. I dragged her towards the platform and literally lifted her onto it. There were two other old people and we somehow managed to push them up. But by then I was caught between the train and the platform'', Laxmamma, a 30-year-old woman who accompanied her mother, Narsamma, recalled.

Laxmamma suffered a deep cut injury on her knee and was discharged from the hospital this morning. She and her badly bruised mother were seen in the corridors of the hospital. ``They are asking us to go away. My daughter cannot move and I cannot see. I do not know what to do. Please help us out'', Narsamma begged everyone who was passing by. As the Charity Hospital promised to drop them back at their villages after the free operation, most of the villagers came without any money.

More pathetic are the cases of Nagamma and Eruka Lachamma hailing from Rekulampally and Jinagala villages. Both aged above 60, they came on their own and both suffered fracture in the leg. Immobilised now, the two women watch helplessly at all the visitors to the Acute Surgical Ward hoping that someone would come for them. Their only request is to send a message to their relatives in the village so that someone could come to the hospital to take care of them.

Some people hailing from Mahabubnagar district, who came to know about the accident, rushed to the village and were seen running from one ward to the other trying to find out whether anyone known to them was injured.

Sarweshwar Reddy, a youngster, was enquiring with everyone about his father, Mannepu Reddy, who came in the group to undergo the operation. All he could learn was that Laxmamma and the other women managed to drag Mannepu Reddy to safety. But now Mannepu Reddy is missing. Telephone calls to the hospital situated in Chaitanyapuri were not being answered and it was not known whether he was taken to that hospital.

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