Tripura, June 22: Swapan Debbarma and his young daughter Somati are unsung heroes of Tripura who risked their lives and averted a major train mishap from happening. To acknowledge the heroic deed of the father-daughter duo, on Thursday, the Health and Family Welfare Minister of Tripura Sudip Roy Barman had his breakfast with them at his official residence, besides personally felicitating them.

According to a report on Northeast Now, the minister even took them to the State Assembly and during the Zero Hour, requested Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb and the House to extend a befitting reward to them. Other than state-felicitation, Barman has also asked for one-time financial help and a government job which will help the poverty-stricken tribal family of six survived by selling forest resources like firewood and bamboo in the local market.

They both became an internet sensation and cricketer Virendra Sehwag had also tweeted saying- "Not all superheroes have a cape, some have a towel. Meet Swapan Debbarma who saved a train accident between Ambassa & Agartala. He spotted a derailed track & jumped onto the track, waved his towel, stopped the train from an accident & saved thousands of lives. Such heroes must be rewarded."

According to reports, the incident happened on June 15, during the heavy rainfall. It was then that a large chunk of mud under the Agartala-Dharmanaga rail track was washed away in the Atharamura hill range. Swapan noticed it and wanted to inform the railway authorities, but there were no means in which he could. So he decided to wait, along with his daughter so that they could alert the train about the danger spot.

Soon, a train from Dharmanagar with several passengers arrived, and Swapan along with his daughter took out a piece of cloth and started running on the tracks, risking their lives. The train immediately stopped, and a major accident was thus averted.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jun 22, 2018 03:26 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).