The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Sunday attacked the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over the Balasore train accident and said that before the accident, there were complaints of problems with the signalling system and a shortage in manpower, but the Central government had not done anything about these issues.
The party also demanded the resignation of Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw.
The AAP’s chief spokesperson Priyanka Kakkar alleged that the Narendra Modi-led Central government’s “negligence” and focus on symbolic gestures had compromised the safety and lives of innocent citizens.
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Claiming that complaints about faults in the signal maintenance system “were coming from every zone”, Ms. Kakkar accused the Central government of inaction.
“From Morbi to Balasore, we are witnessing frequent accidents, which make it abundantly clear that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP have no concern for human life,” she said.
The AAP took on the Central government for focusing on rebranding the Train Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) as the ‘Kavach’ system. “The stark reality is that less than 2% of trains are equipped with the Kavach system. If even 50% of our trains had been fitted with Kavach systems before the Minister’s re-naming campaign, it would have been a more meaningful initiative,” she said.
She also pointed to the number of vacancies in the Indian Railways and its significance for ensuring security. “He [Mr. Vaishnaw] had said in 2022 that Balasore, the site of the recent triple train collision, had around 18,000 vacant posts,” Ms. Kakkar said.
In November 2022, the Railway Workers’ Union had organised a sit-in demanding new recruitment so that the staff would not be forced to do overtime and get the required rest, she said.
“Despite repeated pleas from Railway workers’ unions, the government has failed to address this critical issue, compromising passenger safety,” Ms. Kakkar alleged.
In light of the train collision tragedy, AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sandeep Pathak, who is also a member of the Railways Standing Committee, proposed the installation of anti-derailment devices and the upgrading of tracks for high-speed train operations.
