TMC demands resignation of Rly minister, calls trains ‘death traps’
Kolkata: The tragic rear-end collision between a goods train and the Sealdah-bound Kanchanjungha Express at Rangapani on Monday, which resulted in at least 9 fatalities and over 25 injuries, triggered a political storm with the
Trinamool Congress (TMC) calling for the resignation of Indian Railways minister Ashwini Vaishnaw.
Senior TMC leader Kunal Ghosh accused the Modi government of neglecting Railway passenger safety, alleging BJP has compromised Indian Railways’ safety standards. He also questioned the potential signalling faults in the recent mishap.
Trinamool Rajya Sabha MP Susmita Dev highlighted that Railway safety was prioritised during the separate Railway Budget era but since its integration into the general Budget in 2016, accountability in Parliament waned.
“Railway Budget was separated from the general Budget in 1924. After this was undone in 2016 accountability in parliament was diluted. Railway safety was an important part of the Budget discussion. Left to other devices in the house it is neglected as a topic of discussion. My prayers for the safety of those impacted,” Susmita Dev said in a post on X.
TMC spokesperson Riju Dutta echoing Dev said that the BJP government under Modi abolished the Railways Budget and the accountability for any railway disaster has been diluted. He also demanded the resignation of the railway minister.
“ASHWINI VAISHNAW MUST RESIGN!! Separate Rail Budget was abolished by Modi’s BJP in 2016 and with that Accountability for any Rail Disaster was diluted… Year after year, one Rail Accident after another, with many dead and more injured, yet no accountability.., The incompetent Ashwini Vaishnaw continues as Rail Minister, and Modi, shamelessly parades Vande Bharat over the dead bodies of innocents recovered from mangled coaches,” Dutta said in a post on X.
TMC MP from Rajya Sabha Sagarika Ghose in a post on X said: “Yet ANOTHER train accident. Citizens are paying with their lives for the failures of Modi’s ministers. Still promising Bullet Trains and other fantasies while failing to ensure basic safety for rail passengers. Too many are losing their lives, enough is enough. Rail minister @AshwiniVaishnaw needs to put in his papers.”
TMC leader Debangshu Bhattacharya said that passenger safety in Railways has gone for a toss with trains on which the poor and lower-middle-class people heavily depend have turned into a death trap.
Reportedly, India’s Comptroller and Auditor General noted that Indian Railways recorded 2,017 accidents from 2017 to 2021.
Derailments accounted for 69 per cent of the accidents, resulting in 293 deaths. Based on information given by the former minister of Railways Piyush Goyal in a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha in 2020, 397 people lost their lives in train accidents between 2014 to 2019. In 2023, 293 people died in the Balasore triple train collision.
