41 people had died after the Hirakhand Express derailed in Andhra Pradesh's Vizianagaram district
Two officers from the Rayagada district of Odisha have become local heroes after the Hirakhand Express rail accident on Saturday in which more than 40 people lost their lives.
Rayagada Collector Guha Poonam Tapas Kumar and Superintendent of Police K Siva Subramani crossed the state border into Andhra Pradesh and came to the rescue of trapped passengers within half an hour after the accident.
It's not in our jurisdiction is a reason often given by government officials for not acting in time, but these officials from Odisha junked protocol and cut red tape to reach the accident site, which is in Andhra Pradesh.
41 people have died in the accident but that figure would have been significantly higher had these government officials not acted immediately.
Sibasagar, a passenger who was on the train told NDTV, "The SP reached within 25 minutes. Both SP and Collector reached. The SP himself climbed on top of the overturned coaches and was working like a normal relief worker."
"Because they reached so early relief worked started early. A lot of people were trapped in the debris and they were brought out soon," said Tulsi Das, an eye witness.
"When you ask me why I was so active, humanity comes first before any bureaucratic or any other line of demarcation. Our priority was to save those who were trapped and we focussed on that," Collector Guha Poonam Tapas Kumar told NDTV.
By the time officers from Andhra Pradesh arrived rescue operations were already underway. Along with a disaster management team from Odisha, the Central Reserve Police Force or CRPF officers posted in the area in Odisha, who are also engaged in anti-naxal operations in the area, joined in.
Prabhat Nayak, DIG, CRPF told NDTV, "On getting the information from the collector of Rayagada, a company which was at Sheshkal which is near the spot followed by me and my team. The second team rushed to the coach where five live passengers were trapped so that we could actually save them."
Handing over the dead bodies to relatives was made easier as the Rayagada collector convinced railway authorities to send dead bodies to Odisha instead of Andhra Pradesh as per protocol.