Politics On Railway Accidents: Oppositions And NDA Government Face To Face

Kumar Rakesh

New Delhi. 18 June. After the train accident near New Jalpaiguri station in West Bengal, the opposition parties and the ruling party are face to face. However, the opposition parties should not do politics on such sensitive issues. Because no government sabotage any accident intentionally. This is such a mistake on which all the parties should unite and think about a solid solution in the public interest.

As far as railway accidents are concerned, the system needs modernisation on a large scale. The NDA government of the current Prime Minister Modi is also working so hard with his trusted Railway Minister Dr Ashwini Vaishnav on that policy like anything.

Recently in West Bengal, Kanchenjunga Express was hit from behind by a freight train in which 9 people died and many others were injured. Instead of expressing their sympathies, the opposition parties are blaming the Modi government.

Opposition parties have blamed that railway accidents have increased under the current government. Congress President M Kharge and Former Rail Minister & CM of West Bengal Mamata Banerji also charged Modi Government to increase accidents in railways. But both leaders should look into own tenure before blaming others.

However , sources in the Railway Ministry have denied the opposition’s claims and blames without any base. Ministry claims that  opposition parties have no any documents for their so called baseless claims.

Railway Accidents-NDA vs UPA (now INDI Coalition) Government

Sources in the Railway Ministry claim that rail accidents are decreasing in the Modi government as compared to the Congress coalition governments.

According to the sources in the  Ministry of Railways , the average number of train accidents resulting in the Congress coalition government during 2004-14 was 171 (One hundred seventy one )per year. On the other hand, the average number of train accidents resulting in the Modi government during 2014-23 has come down to 71 (seventy one)per year. This is also a record. The present government has emphasized on many new measures to prevent rail accidents.

Reasons for decreasing railway accidents

The Railway Ministry claims that the reason behind this is the efficient and proper management with many modernisation scheme of the railways. Due to  many modern technical measures that have reduced such accidents. The ministry claims that an amount of about Rs 45,000 crore has been spent on modernisation of railways  so far to eliminate accidents caused by human failure.

According to the sources, electrical/electronic interlocking systems with centralized operation of points and signals have been provided at 6498 stations by October 2023. Along with this, security has been increased at LC gates, under which interlocking of level crossing (LC) gates has been provided at 11 thousand 137 level crossing gates by 31 October 2023.

Apart from this many modern techniques and latest system are on the way to keep railways for world level facilities with all major security purposes  for passengers.