Congress leader and Lok Sabha MP Gaurav Gogoi on Thursday criticised Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw for not taking moral responsibility for train accidents, dubbing him the “derailment minister.”
Gogoi alleged that Bharatiya Janata Party ministers have been blaming historical issues instead of taking responsibility for recent incidents in the country.
“In the last two months, at least four goods trains have derailed and four people died in July. Ten people were killed in June due to the collision of the Kanchanjunga Express, in addition to thousands being injured. Despite all this, the railway minister has not taken any responsibility,” said Gaurav Gogoi.
At least ten passengers died, and 41 others were injured when three rear coaches of the stationary Sealdah-bound Kanchanjunga Express derailed on June 17 after a goods train collided with it from the rear in West Bengal’s Darjeeling district.
Gogoi also alleged that the railway minister was busy accusing Opposition members and threatening them instead of addressing railway safety. “In 2023 in Odisha, at least 300 people were killed. Who is going to take responsibility for that? In the last year and a half, train accidents have been rising, and the minister is busy with manufacturing. He is not a railway minister, he is a derailment minister,” Gogoi said.
On June 2, 2023, the Coromandel Express collided with a stationary iron ore-laden goods train at Bahanaga Bazar station. Some of its derailed coaches then crashed into the Yeshwantpur-Howrah Express, resulting in India’s worst railway disaster in three decades, killing 293 passengers and injuring 1,100 others.
Gogoi added that the minister’s response in the House was unsatisfactory and avoided accountability, leading the I.N.D.I.A. bloc parties to stage a walkout.
On July 24, Ashwini Vaishnaw announced that the Railway Ministry has allocated Rs 1,112.57 crore to install the Automatic Train Protection (ATP) system, Kavach, for the financial year 2024-25. Kavach is an indigenously developed ATP system that is highly technology-intensive and requires the highest level of safety certification.
