After three rear coaches of the Sealdah-bound Kanchanjungha Express derailed in West Bengal’s Darjeeling district following a collision with a goods train, killing nine people and causing injuries to 41 others, Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has come under fire from the opposition.
The Congress launched a fierce attack on the Railways Minister, labelling him a “Reel minister.”
On Tuesday, Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge said, “Whenever there is a train accident, Modi Govt’s Railway Minister reaches the spot under the glare of cameras and behaves as if everything is fine!”
Kharge asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi “who should be held accountable, the Railway Minister or you?”
Vaishnaw, who visited the train accident site, told reporters, “Right now our focus is on restoration. This is the main line. The rescue operation has been completed. This is not the time for politics. I will also meet the injured.”
The opposition, Congress, has demanded the resignation of Vaishnaw and criticised the PM Modi-led central government for giving more attention to the Vande Bharat and ignoring the problems related to the poor condition of the Indian Railways.
“Self-glorification will not undo the criminal negligence perpetrated by the Modi Govt on the Indian Railways! Accountability needs to be fixed at the top,” Kharge said in a post on X.
Kharge also posed seven questions to the government and demanded answers. His post read:
- After a major accident like Balasore, why was not even a single kilometer of the much-hyped “Kavach” anti-train collision system added?
- Why are nearly 3 lakh posts vacant in the Railways, why were they not filled in the last 10 years?
- According to the NCRB (2022) report, 1,00,000 people have died in rail accidents between 2017 and 2021 alone! Who will take responsibility for this?
The Railway Board itself has admitted that the long working hours of loco pilots due to acute shortage of manpower are the main reason for the increasing number of accidents. Then why were the posts not filled?
- In its 323rd report, the Parliamentary Standing Committee had criticised the Railways for the “neglect” shown by the Railway Board towards the recommendations of the Commission of Railway Safety (CRS). It was underlined that the CRS investigates only 8%-10% of accidents, why was the CRS not strengthened?
- According to the CAG, why was 75% funding reduced in the ‘Rashtriya Rail Suraksha Kosh’ (RRSK), while ₹20,000 Cr was to be made available every year. Why is this money being used by railway officials on unnecessary expenses and comfort facilities?
- Why has travelling by train in the common Sleeper Class become very expensive? Why has the number of Sleeper Coaches been reduced?
Railway Minister recently said to use police force against the people “overcrowding” rail coaches. But does he not know that 2.70 Cr people had to cancel their tickets, last year due to abysmal shortage of seats — a direct result of Modi Govt’s policy to reduce coaches?
- Did the Modi Govt merge the Railway Budget with the General Budget in 2017-18 to avoid any kind of accountability?
Last year in June, three trains collided in Odisha’s Balasore district. The Coromandel Express entered the passing loop instead of the main line near Bahanaga Bazar railway station at full speed and collided with a goods train. Due to its high speed, 21 coaches were derailed and three of those collided with the oncoming SMVT Bengaluru–Howrah Superfast Express on the adjacent track. In the second deadliest railway crash in India since the Firozabad rail collision, around 296 people were killed in the crash and more than 1,200 others were left injured.
