Thaindian News

New Delhi, July 11 (IANS) With no full time railway minister for the past two months and the previous incumbent Mamata Banerjee having spent a lot of her time preparing for the West Bengal assembly polls, the spate of rail accidents over the past few months is being linked to a “political vacuum” in the ministry.

The accident Sunday involving the HOwrah-Kalka Mail in Fatehpur district of Uttar Pradesh led to at least 69 passengers being killed. In another incident Sunday, over 100 people were injured when the Guwahati-Puri Express derailed due to a suspected bomb blast near Ghograpara in Assam’s Nalbari distict. A few days ago, the Mathura-Chhapra Express hit a bus at an unmanned railway near Etah in Uttar Pradesh leaving 38 bus passengers dead.

The opposition parties have slammed the government over the vacuum in the ministry and blamed the UPA government’s coalition politics for the situation.

Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) MP and former railway standing committee chairman Basudeb Acharia held both Mamata Banerjee and her Trinamool Congress party MP and junior railway minister Mukul roy responsible for the accidents.

“Those at the helm of affairs over the past two years have to take responsibility for the death of innocents. Mukul and Mamata cannot shirk their responsibility.

“When she had the railway portfolio, Mamata Banerjee used to stay in Delhi for only a day every week to go to her department Railway Bhavan. Her only aim was to become West Bengal chief minister. She totally neglected the railways,” he said.

Acharia said under Banerjee and Roy, the posts of 1.20 lakh safety manoeuvring staff of the railways including those of thousands of gangmen were lying vacant. “From station manager, right up to the GM level many slots are vacant. Banerjee has done immense damage to the railways.”

“Now there seems to be a feud in the Trinamool Congress with Mukul Roy not happy over the likely elevation of Dinesh Trivedi (Trinamool Congress MP and MoS health and family welfare) as cabinet minister for railways,”

“We are concerned about the state of railways, during the UPA I and UPA II, the railways has become the victim of government’s coalition politics,” BJP spokesperson Jagat Prakash Nadda said.

CPI-M leader Sitaram Yechury said the government was responsible for the accident.

“No one has been given the charge of railways till now, the whole government is responsible for it, but the railway minister is responsible above all,” Yechury told reporters.

“Why hasn’t the prime minister appointed a new railway minister till now. He should tell the nation. People should not be losing their lives because of the government’s inaction. This is serious,” he said.

Banerjee’s handling of the ministry before she became West Bengal chief minister had also come under sharp criticism from opposition parties for her “prolonged absence” from the national capital. Her critics said she was running the ministry “part time” and had indulged in populist measures such as ill-planned expansions.

Banerjee has been keen to retain the portfolio with her party and the government seems in a mood to oblige. Her confidant Mukul Roy was moved as minister of state for railways soon after her victory in West Bengal polls. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has been looking after the railways since Banerjee resigned the post.

Mukul Roy’s response when asked why he had not gone to the accident site also attracted criticism. Officials said that the prime minister had to direct Roy Monday to visit the site of the accident in Assam.

When contacted, Roy said that queries should be put to his colleague K.H. Muniyappa: “Whatever queries you have, you put to Mr Muniyappa. He is looking after the entire matter.”

Asked whether he would be going to Assam, Roy did not give a categorical reply.

Railway officials said that the spate of accidents was sullying the reputation of the organisation which prides in being one of the largest rail networks in the world.

They said that the Comptroller and Auditor General’s report had pointed to the burgeoning problems in railways including its failure to meet its targets set in corporate safety plan on modernising signalling equipment, installation of anti-collision devices and filling of safety-related vacancies.

Experts also questioned the reports that the Kalka Mail accident had been caused by sudden application of brakes by the driver.

B. Rajaram, former Managing Director of Konkan Railway, said application of emergency brakes should not derail a train. “Why the driver had to apply brakes is the question. The way coaches are piled up… it is very intriguing. Facts are not being given out,” he said.

He said anti-collision device (ACD) can act as a virtual black box, and would have helped the accident inquiry.

Rajaram said while ACD would have been of help in many situations, “but if it is a case of derailment either because of axle breakage, or some track defect, then ACD cannot prevent the same”.

Two other major rail accidents have occurred over the past 14 months. At least 146 people died in a derailment blamed on Maoist saboteurs in West Bengal in May last year and two months later at least 63 people died when an express train heading for Kolkata ploughed into the back of another train around 200 km north of Kolkata.