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Congress President and former Railway Minister Mallikarjun Kharge wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, questioning the systematic undermining of the Railways autonomy through measures such as merging the Railway Budget with the general Union Budget and a rapid move to privatise the public sector behemoth. Kharge simultaneously said the CBI, which the Centre has said would probe the cause of the Odisha train accident, has neither expertise nor competence to do it.
Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw ordered a CBI probe into the matter after a preliminary inquiry by the Railways showed a possible failure of the electronic interlocking system to have led to the three-train collision near Balasore in Odisha.
Kharge said a crucial step is to “prioritise installation of mandatory safety standards and equipment” across railway routes so as to ensure safety passengers and ensure that there is no recurrence of such accidents.
In one of India’s worst train accidents in recent times, three trains — one goods train and two passenger locomotives — were involved in a collision leading to the derailment of at least 21 bogies, death of 275 individuals, and some 1000-odd injuries.
Kharge questioned the reason behind ordering a CBI probe into the incident; since according to him, investigating agency is suited to look into incidents of crime and is not suited for a technical probe like in this case.
“The Railway Minister claims to have already found a root cause, but yet has requested the CBI to investigate. The CBI is meant to investigate crimes, not railway accidents. The CBI, or any other law enforcement agency, cannot fix accountability for technical, institutional and political failures. In addition, they lack the technical expertise in railway safety, signalling, and maintenance practice,” he said.
“Roping in of yet another agency without the required expertise, remind us of 2016. They show that your government has no intent to address the systemic safety malaise, but is instead finding diversionary tactics to derail any attempts to fix accountability,” he mentioned in his letter on June 5.
He also pointed out that at present about 3 lakh posts are lying vacant in Indian Railways. “In fact in the East Coast Railway — the site of this tragic accident — about 8278 posts are vacant,” he wrote adding that there were more than 18 lakh railway employees in the decade of nineties, which have now been reduced to about 12 lakh, of which 3.18 lakh are employed on contractual basis.
Kharge claimed that the Railway Board has admitted that loco pilots have had to work longer hours than mandated due to manpower shortages.
“On February 8, 2023, the Principal Chief Operating Manager of South West Zonal Railway, referred to the collision of two trains in Mysuru and asserted the need to repair the signaling system. He had forewarned about potential accidents in the future due to this flaw,” the Congress President said.
The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Transport, Tourism, and Culture, in its 323rd report (dated December 2022), has also criticised the negligence of the Railway Board towards recommendations of the Commission of Railway Safety (CRS). The report further revealed how the CRS investigates only 8 to 10 train accidents. Kharge called for “strengthening of the CRS” which has apparently been overlooked.
Kharge has also alleged that the anti-collision system, called KAVACH, has been put on the back burner. Only 4 per cent of Indian rail routes have KAVACH coverage.
“Why was the previous government’s plans to roll out the anti-train-collision system, originally named Raksha Kavach put on the back burner? This system was developed by the Konkan Railway and tested successfully by the Research Designs and Standards Organization (RDSO) in 2011, it was meant to prevent collision of trains. Your government simply renamed the scheme ‘Kavach’ and in March 2022, the Railway Minister himself projected the rechristened scheme as a new novel invention. But the question still remains, why have only a measly 4 per cent of routes of Indian Railways been protected by ‘Kavach’,” he questioned.
Kharge in his letter also questioned the Centre’s logic to merge the Budget for Indian Railways with the Union Budget in 2017-18? According to him, this has adversely affected the autonomy and decision making capacity of Indian Railways and push it towards privatisation.
“Was this done to undermine the autonomy of Railways to push reckless privatisation? Even though privatisation of Railways was repeatedly opposed during Parliamentary proceedings, all concerns have been ignored by bringing trains to stations under the ambit of brazen privatisation. It’s apparent that the government’s arbitrary decision making including the National Rail Plan for up to 2050 without any consultation or detailed discussion is aimed at exploiting the railways and making it an easy target and fodder for private companies,” he wrote.
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