Udhayanidhi Stalin with SS Sivasankar speaking to reporters on Odisha train tragedy. (ANI)
CHENNAI: After a day visit to Odisha to enquire and inspect the status of passengers of Tamil Nadu natives who traveled on the Coromandel Express which derailed, Tamil Nadu Sports Minister Udhayanidhi Stalin positively said that no person of Tamil Nadu origin is on the list of deceased.
"There are no Tamilians admitted in the hospital as injured and no name is in the deceased list. We have interacted with the Odisha state officials from their information that only 28 passengers who are Tamilian boarded in the derailed Coromandel train", said Udhayanidhi while addressing media at Chennai Airport after his arrival.
"Previously we have released a list of 8 Tamil passengers who went missing but now we have contacted two passengers from that list they are safe now. We could say that the remaining Six passengers Karthik, Ragunath, Meena, Kamal, Kalpana, and Arun are also safe. Some co-passengers acknowledged it as per the information from the railway police", he added.
The missing six passengers traveled in B3, B4, B7, B9, S1, and S2 coaches of Coromandel Express. The passengers who traveled in these coaches are safe. As far as now no person of Tamil Nadu origin who boarded in the Coromandel Express has not lost their lives, said Udhayanidhi.
"This accident could have been avoided. When we visited the hospitals and mortuary the scenes we encountered there worried us. The Union government should find out the cause of the accident and this should not repeat in the future. I hope the Union government will take adequate actions," said Udhayanidhi.
Udhayanidhi and transport minister SS Sivasankar later met Tamil Nadu CM MK Stalin at his residence in Chennai and briefed him about the situation.
The Tamil Nadu government has set up a state emergency operations centre at Ezhilagam, Chennai to guide and assist the relatives of the passengers.
Further, the TN government asked the relatives of the passengers who went missing to contact through toll-free no - 1070, 9445869843 to provide valid information.
