The Congress party has come down heavily on the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government at the Centre over the tragic loss of lives in the Odisha train tragedy and claimed that the government has “no intent” to address the “systemic safety malaise” in the railways, and is instead finding “diversionary tactics to derail” any attempts to fix accountability.
Over 280 people lost their lives and over 1,000 were injured in an accident involving the Bengaluru-Howrah Superfast Express, the Shalimar-Chennai Central Coromandel Express and a goods train on Friday evening.
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In a strongly-worded four-page letter addressed to the Prime Minister, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said that the train accident in Odisha was an eye-opener for all and the “empty safety claims” of the Railways minister stood exposed. He listed 11 questions to the Prime Minister in his letter.
The Congress president also highlighted the latest audit report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India which stated that nearly three in four “consequential train accidents” across the country between 2017-18 and 2020-21 were caused by derailments. “Why were these grave red flags ignored?” Kharge asked in his letter.
“Why was the previous government’s plans to roll out the anti-train-collision system, originally named Raksha Kavach, put on the back burner? Your government simply renamed the scheme ‘Kavach’ and in March 2022, the Railway Minister himself projected the rechristened scheme as a new novel invention. But the question still remains, why have only a measly 4 per cent of routes of Indian Railways been protected by ‘Kavach’ till now?” he wrote.
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Kharge further questioned the government over its decision to call for a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the Odisha train accident and said law enforcement agencies cannot fix accountability for technical, institutional and political failures.
“The CBI is meant to investigate crimes, not railway accidents. The CBI, or any other law enforcement agency, cannot fix accountability for technical, institutional and political failures. In addition, they lack the technical expertise in railway safety, signalling, and maintenance practices,” Kharge wrote in his letter.
Kharge firther cited the 2016 train derailment case which was handed over to the National Investigation Agency for a probe. Subsequently, you yourself claimed in an election rally in 2017 that there was a “conspiracy”. The nation was assured that the strictest punishment would be meted out. However, in 2018, the NIA closed the investigation and refused to file a chargesheet. The nation is still in the dark – who is responsible for 150 avoidable deaths?” Kharge asked.
Kharge further questioned the government over the 3 lakh posts lying vacant in the Railways, pointing out that there are about 8,278 posts vacant in the East Coast Railway, the site of this tragic accident.
He also said that the Railway Board has already admitted that loco pilots have had to work longer hours than mandated duer to the shortage of workforce. He also referred to a letter by the Principal Chief Operations Manager of Karnataka-based South Western Railway to his signalling counterpart in February highlighting an issue of “signal failure” with the Sampark Kranti Express. “Why and how could the Ministry of Railways ignore this crucial warning?” he asked.
Kharge also pointed out that the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Transport, Tourism and Culture had “criticised the complete apathy and negligence of the Railway Board towards recommendations of the Commission of Railway Safety (CRS) pulled up the Railway Board for not following safety procedures”.
In a four-page letter to the Prime Minister, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge also questioned the government over calling for a CBI probe into the Odisha train tragedy.
