Saurabh Kumar Gupta
MBA-IT (Ist Semester)
Indian Institute of Information Technology - Allahabad

Reckless Trains

You would imagine a politician owning such powerful rhetoric and pretence to care about lives. But the concerned authority of railway seems to be least interested about the mango people. They have time only to play politics and have displayed lack of sensitivity for human life. How else does one explain the indifference to around 200 accidents and 500 fatalities since last year without a single step to address the most critical issue – safety? It would seem, that the ambition to rule as West Bengal’s Chief Minister has overwhelmed the sense of responsibility of our railway minister as the head of the largest government department of the country. After Sainthi train accident on July19, which claimed 63 lives, they still talk about politics and accuse the CPI(M) of conspiracy.
During the current tenure out of the 100 train accidents that happened between April 2009 and March 2010, a startling 66 were caused due to the failure of railway staff. Some of the accidents that occurred in past few months are:

 

• Jan 16, 2010 Three killed when Kalendi Express collides with Stationary Shramshakti Express near Tundla
• May 25, 2010 – 148 killed in the Gyaneshwari Express train disaster
• July 8, 2010 – 213 killed as Garib Rath derails after a blast in Assam’s Kokrajhar

Despite of this fact, nowhere was safety stressed or parameter set to modernize the setup. Railway minister promise to spend Rs Nov 1, 2009 70 lacks a km to implement safety devices in the Railway Budget, but has no records of implementation. Also a special Railway Safety fund of Rs 17000 crore set up in 2003 for 10 years was slashed by Rs 579 crore last year.
These things bring every efforts to zero. We say India is a democratic country. People welfare, growth and safety are the foremost objectives of the government. But the present scenario gives a gloomy picture. Common people are dying every day in some or the other accidents. While politicians are busy in their politics .A feeling of fear is gearing up in our mind. That day is not so far when we might stop travelling on trains, fearing our safety. So, the government and the railway ministry should make some visible and effective efforts and measures to give a feeling of safety to the people.

Ref:  India Today  Aug 2,2010