Congress blasted frequent railway accidents in the country at the rate of one every three days and accused Narendra Modi government of “destroying” the Indian Railways. Demanding the resignation of railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw following the Kanchanjunga Express accident, asserted that he has no moral right to continue in his position.
It mocked Vaishnaw for arriving at the accident site riding pillion on a motorcycle, questioning whether he is a `rail minister’ or a ‘reel minister’. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge challenged prime minister Modi to clarify who should be held accountable — the railway minister or himself.
Kharge posed seven critical questions to the government in a post on X, demanding immediate answers.
1. Why after a major incident like the Balasore accident, not a single kilometre of railway route has been covered by of the much-touted ‘Kavach’ anti-collision system.
2. Nearly 3 lakh vacant positions in the Railways that have remained unfilled for the past decade.
3. According to NCRB’s 2022 report, 100,000 people have died in rail accidents between 2017 and 2021. Who would take responsibility for this alarming statistic?
4. 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. Why were the posts still not filled?
5. ‘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 percent of accidents. Why was the CRS not strengthened?
5. According to the CAG, 75 per cent of the funding was reduced for the Rashtriya Rail Suraksha Kosh (RRSK), while Rs 20,000 crore was to be made available every year. Again, Kharge asked, why was this decision taken?
6. Why was the money that was allotted being used by railway officials for unnecessary expenses and comfort facilities?
7. Why reduction in the number of sleeper coaches, even as the cost of sleeper class travel has increased?
Later, Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate held up pictures of the Balasore train accident from June 2023 as a reminder of India’s worst ever rail tragedy, and then of Monday’s accident, asking what had changed between these two incidents.
Shrinate noted that as many as 1,117 railway accidents had taken place from 2014 to 2023, which means an accident every three days!
She also highlighted the failure of the government’s much-touted ‘Kavach protection’ project. “What explains the 3,12,000 vacancies in the Indian railways? What explains the 21 per cent vacant positions for loco pilots?” she asked.
