India Is Among The Countries With Highest Railway Accidents In The World

Give a bad name to the dog and kill it. This is actually happening with the railways. Recurring train accidents are the best motives for marketing the train services to private sector. Selling a profit making organisation would invite severe public outcry and criticism. It would give a bad name to the government and turn it suspect in the eyes of the common people. Though the Narendra Modi government has handed over a chunk of railway operation and services to Adani group, it is the fear of public revolt against this move that prohibits Narendra Modi from gifting the entire railway to the private sector.

The incident of derailment of the Howrah-Mumbai Mail at around 3.45 am on Tuesday near Badabamboo, under the Chakradharpur Division of the South Eastern Railway, in which according to railways two persons were killed and 20 others injured ,is the classical case of utter dereliction of responsibility. The local people however contradict the official version and say that more than a dozen people had died in the derailment of 18 bogies. They accuse the officials of concealing the actual number of passenger killed..

SER spokesperson Om Prakash Charan had said there was another derailment of a goods train nearby, but it was not yet clear whether the two accidents occurred concurrently. However one thing is absolutely clear that India is rapidly becoming the country for railway accidents in the world. The frequency of accidents is alarming both passengers and rail workers.

This sharp increase in the accidents sends a clear and loud message that Narendra Modi is not at all bothered of the loss of human lives. For them, people are worst than pigs and dogs for him. If he has been really concerned of the lives of the common people and financial loss to the country, he certainly should have taken preventive measures and placed the railway operation in better and proper mode.

The chief of the BJP IT cell has come out with the accident figures which claims that railways have been operating comparatively accident free. This is indeed a cruel joke. The fact is most of the trains meant for common people have been withdrawn during Modi rule. Even then the number of accidents has been sizeable. At least 638 train accidents took place between 2014-2023 under NDA rule. Interestingly during this period, Modi government claims, safety expenditures have tripled with annual spend at Rs 17801 crores. Obviously in the background of these accidents, question arises where has the fund gone. At least two recent train accidents one involving Kanchanjunga Express and another Mumbai Mail have reignited the debate over whether PM Modi-led NDA has managed the India Railways better than Manmohan Singh’s UPA.

In fact, eleven railway organisations and central trade unions have issued a scathing joint statement, demanding accountability of the Union government, its ministers and other high authorities for the large number of preventable accidents in the Indian Railways. They have urged the government to stop the “violation of safety norms and procedures,” highlighting key loopholes that may be responsible for the accidents. They have also urged the rail minister to fill all vacant positions in the safety category in Indian Railways, providing examples of the fatal human cost of overwork.

Collisions or so-called “accidents” happen resulting in deaths and tremendous loss of public property but even before the real reason is determined, the railway authorities quickly put the blame on the railway workers; loco pilots, Station Masters, train managers (earlier known as guards), signalling staff, and so on. These cannot defend themselves. No top official of even media gives credence to their version. They are the scapegoats.

True to his style, Prime Minister announced at least a year ago installation of Kavach to prevent accidents. But the progress is quite disgusting. The entire move is shrouded in mystery. It was said that railways would roll out tenders for 10,000 km of Kavach, an automatic train protection system, to prevent accidents due to human error resulting in Signal Passing in danger and over-speeding. Presently, Kavach contracts have been awarded for Delhi- Mumbai (including Ahmedabad-Vadodara Section) & Delhi- Howrah (including Lucknow—Kanpur Section) corridors approximately 3000 km. The system involves complexities and it has to be customised for every train. For example, a 5000-tonne goods train would need a 1-1.5 km distance to come to a halt while for MEMU it will be 300-500 km. So, the system has to be devised accordingly.

On Tuesday itself ,Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav rightly hit out at the government’s track record when it comes to rail safety, stating, “This government wants to make a record in train accidents. They had record number of paper leaks, and now railway accidents. This government only makes big claims. People are losing their lives. The government should do something about it so that such accidents do not happen in future.”

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, while offering condolences to the victims’ families, asked the government to fix accountability following sharp increase in accidents, Banerjee, a former Railways Minister, tweeted, “I seriously ask: is this governance? This series of nightmares almost every week, this unending procession of deaths and injuries on railway tracks: for how long shall we tolerate this? Will there be no end to the callousness of Government of India?!” She sought to know: “’I seriously ask: is this governance? This series of nightmares almost every week, this unending procession of deaths and injuries on railway tracks: for how long shall we tolerate this? Will there be no end to the callousness of Government of India?’

Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Priyanka Chaturvedi also questioned the government’s response to increasingly frequent instances of rail-related mishaps, accusing it of “shameful apathy”. “With several deaths and no accountability till date, I guess this also won’t have any impact. Announce compensation, promise enquiry and move on to another PR Instagram reel,” Priyanka Chaturvedi said.

It is really worrisome how many more train accidents it would take for the Centre to take action, saying, People are suffering, people are being put through hardships and misery while the Modi government continues to escape accountability and responsibility for rail safety.

Shockingly the railways tried to politicise the accident by putting the blame for the accident on Jharkhand government. This made the JMM leadership to strongly retort. JMM slammed rail minister and urged to focus on railways instead of making social media reels. It also refuted that chief minister Hemant Soren and the INDIA bloc were not involved in any way.

In the Union Budget 2024-25 presented on July 23, according to the rail minister Ashwini Vaishnaw a sum of Rs 1.08 trillion would be used for enhancing safety measures. Vaishnaw after the West Bengal rail accident on June 17, had also directed railway officials to accelerate the implementation of the Kavach system in a structured mission mode. Had the Kavach been installed and all the locomotives equipped with the system then certainly the Mumbai Mail accident had not happened.

Even the Jharkhand BJP president Babulal Marandi said, “The entire responsibility for this (train accident) lies with your Railway Minister and the central government. Stop the Railway Minister from making reels and request him to focus on railways.” (IPA Service)