2 dead, over 2,600 people arrested from Railway premises over Agnipath protests: Govt

Two people died, 35 were injured and 2,642 arrested from railway premises during the agitation against the Agnipath scheme, the Railways informed the Parliament on Wednesday.

In a written reply in the Lok Sabha, Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said separate data on the refund granted to passengers due to disruption of rail services on account of public disorder consequent to various agitations is not maintained.

He, however, said from June 14 22, a total refund of approximately Rs 102.96 crore was granted on account of cancellation of trains.

The minister said due to strikes and agitations the Railways has incurred a loss of Rs 151 crore in 2019-20, Rs 904 crore in 2020-21 and Rs 62 crore in 2021-22.

"No compensation has been paid to the passengers and their families who died/injured during this protest," the reply said.

The number of cases registered on account of destruction of railway property in 2019, 2020 and 2021 is 95, 30 and 34, respectively.

No recoveries to compensate the loss occurred to Railways have been made so far, the minister stated in his reply.

Bihar and Telangana witnessed the maximum destruction of Railway property due to law and order situation in the ongoing year.

The reply from the Railways said considering the Kakodkar Committee report on review of high level safety, guidelines have been issued to Zonal Railways for filing compensation claim cases in the court of law in cases of disruption and vandalism it has suffered during agitations, rail roko and bandh among others.

Giving zone-wise details on the number of people arrested, dead and injured due to agitations against the Agnipath scheme, the reply said a maximum of 1,051 people were arrested in the Southern Railways, followed by 700 arrests in East Central Railways.

Also, two people died and 35 were injured according to the data compiled from all the zones, it added.