Congress on Sunday demanded Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw’s resignation accusing the government of “utter-negligence”, “incompetence”, and a “know it all” attitude that led to train accident killing over 288 passengers and leaving 1,000 others injured.

Congress leaders Shaktisinh Gohil and Pawan Khera charged that the Railway Ministry under Vaishnav has scant regards towards safety of the passengers. Just hours before the deadliest railway accident, the Ministry’s ‘Çhintan Shivir’ skipped safety presentations, the two leaders said in a joint statement.

“According to multiple officials present at a ‘Chintan Shivir’, or a brainstorming session headed by Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Friday just hours before the accident, presentations by various zones on railway safety were skipped,” the party said on the basis of media reports. Only one zone was allowed to make the presentation on safety. The discussion on the launch of Vande Bharat trains and increasing revenue were allowed, the party pointed out .

‘Criminal neglect’

Congress alleged there has been “criminal neglect of signalling system” ignoring multiple warnings including after the February 8 incident in which two trains stopped short of head on collision in Mysore division. At that point of time, the two opposition leaders stated that Principal Chief Operating manager of South Western Railway zone raised concerns of signal failure of an express train and had cautioned that, if left unattended, it could lead to “re-occurrence and serious accidents” but nothing was done.

Besides that, the Congress said, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on transport, tourism and culture in its 323rd report had slammed the railways for the “disregard” shown by the Railway Board towards the recommendations of the Commission of Railway Safety (CRS).

The Congress also stated that a CAG report had flagged multiple serious deficiencies in Modi government’s railway management. “Almost 7 out of 10 rail accidents between FY18 and FY21 were derailments. Track defects, engineering and maintenance issues and operating errors were the causes of these derailments but little was done to avert similar accidents, Gohil and Khera charged.

The audit report, they pointed out, also said the overall allotment of funds for track renewal had been on the decline, and even the funds that were allocated were not utilised completely. This is alarming given that the report also states that 26 per cent of the total derailments during 2017-2021 were linked to track renewals, they said.

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