Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge expressed concern over the safety of passengers and said that all the empty safety claims of the Railway Minister have now been exposed, following the train accident in Odisha’s Balasore district. In a letter addressed to the PM, Kharge wrote that the train accident had shocked the nation and it was incumbent upon the government to ascertain and bring to light the real reasons that caused this grave accident. He further added that the most crucial step is to prioritize the installation of mandatory safety standards and equipment across railway routes to ensure the safety of passengers and no recurrence of an accident like the one in Balasore.
Kharge also posed several questions to the BJP government over the train tragedy and said that instead of focusing on strengthening the railways at the basic level, only superficial touch-ups are being done to stay in the news. He asked why the previous government’s plans to roll out the anti-train-collision system, originally named Raksha Kavach, were put on the back burner and only a measly 4% of routes of Indian Railways had been protected by Kavach until now.
He further questioned what the reason was for merging the Budget for Indian Railways with the Union Budget. Kharge also criticized the Railway Minister for claiming to have already found a root cause but yet requested the CBI to investigate, stating that the CBI is meant to investigate crimes, not railway accidents. He added that the CBI or any other law enforcement agency could not fix accountability for technical, institutional, and political failures.
Kharge concluded by stressing the need for the government to prioritize the safety of passengers and not just make superficial changes to the railway system. He urged the government to install mandatory safety standards and equipment and ensure that no recurrence of such accidents happens again.
