‘Is it true that Railway Minister..?’ Surjewala asked these 9 questions to PM Modi on Balasore train accident

Balasore Train Accident: In the Balasore train accident, 288 people have died, while the number of injured has gone up to 1175. At the same time, politics has also intensified regarding the accident. Congress leader Randeep Surjewala has asked 9 questions to PM Modi regarding this horrific accident. Along with this, he has also demanded the dismissal of Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnav.

Citing the news report, Surjewala said that why did the Railway Minister ignore the serious warning about the failure in the signal system. He also said that the Railway Minister’s focus is more on marketing and pleasing PM Modi than on the safety of the Railways. Surjewala asked whether the dead are just numbers or is anyone responsible for India’s worst train accident? He himself said, the Modi government and the Railway Minister should be held fully responsible for this.

Surjewala gave 9 reasons, asked 9 questions

1- Initial reports suggest that the Balasore train accident was caused by the failure of the signaling system, but the Railway Minister and the Ministry of Railways were oblivious to the important warning given on the failure of the signaling system. Why was the Railway Minister or Railway Ministry unaware or careless about this news.

2- Recently many goods trains derailed, in which many loco pilots were killed and wagons were destroyed. Why didn’t it raise enough alarm on the lack of rail security, which would have forced the Minister and the Ministry of Railways to take appropriate measures?

3- Is it true that the railway minister is more concerned about marketing and pleasing the prime minister than focusing on rail safety?

Is the Railway Minister too busy getting the PM to start Vande Bharat trains, renovating railway stations (tweeting their pictures) and raising revenue instead of looking at the onerous task of ensuring the safety of passengers?

Is this the reason why the Railway Minister largely skipped the presentation on Railway Safety at Chintan Shivir on June 2, 2023 (a few hours before the Odisha Train Accident) and focused on the launch of Vande Bharat trains and increasing revenue?

4- Is the increasing lapse of “Railway Security” not due to lack of availability of essential manpower – foot soldiers like gang men, station masters, loco pilots etc.?

Is it not true that according to an RTI reply given by the Railways, most of the 39 railway zones lack the required human resources?

Is it not true that there are 3,11,000 vacancies of Group C posts in Railways which is putting rail safety as well as operational efficiency at risk?

Is it not true that out of 18,881 gazetted cadre posts in Railways, 3,081 posts are lying vacant?

How is effective and safe operation possible in the absence of employees?

5- Is it not true that the year 2022-23 witnessed 48 “train accidents” (rail accidents with serious consequences in terms of loss of life, property etc.) as against 35 such accidents last year?

Is it not true that in the year 2022-23 there were 165 “Non-Consequential Train Accidents” including 35 cases of “Signal Endangered – SPAD”?

Why didn’t it issue a serious warning on rail safety? What preventive measures were taken?

6- Why the “Train Collision Avoidance System – TCAS” called Kavach has not been implemented in all railway zones?

Is it not correct that only 2% of the rail network i.e. 1,450 km out of 68,000 km railway network is covered by Kavach?

How will rail safety be ensured?

7- Why has the Ministry of Railways curtailed the powers of the “Railway Safety Commission” and made it redundant?

8- Isn’t it correct that the CAG Report 2021 states that 20% of the “National Rail Safety Fund” was used for non-safety purposes and a substantial amount was not utilised?

Is this not a deliberate mistake?

9- Why is the Railway Minister also burdened with big ministries like IT and Telecom, due to which Railways has become second job for him and putting the security in danger?

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