Cooperative sector lost one of the leading cooperators from Karnataka Mr Subhash Reddy Patil in the Bangalore-Nanded Express train accident which was bound for Nanded.
A native of Raichur and honorary treasurer of the Karnataka Chapter of the Indian Red Cross Society Mr Patil was the director of the Karnataka State Cooperative Federation.
Twenty-six passengers of the Bangalore-Nanded Express bound for Nanded were charred to death and 15 were injured when a fire suspected to have caused by electrical short circuit in an AC compartment gutted a bogey, at this town near Puttaparthi on Saturday.
The disaster, the second worst for Indian railways this year, could have led to a higher toll of life had the loco pilot not had the presence of mind to detach the compartment as soon as the fire sparked off. That action saved as many as 38 of the 64 passengers in the ill-fated compartment escape with minor injuries and prevented a bigger conflagration as the fire could have spread to other compartments.
The passengers in compartment B1 were in deep sleep when the fire was noticed at around 3.15am, soon after the train passed Puttaparthi. Terrified, some of the passengers pulled the chains to stop the train. But the train did not stop immediately, and came to a halt five minutes later near Kothacheruvu.