West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday visited the railway accident site near Balasore in Odisha and raised questions on why anti-collision devices were not installed.
“Railway department is neglected. They do not care for passenger safety and security. The situation is getting from bad to worse. Anti-collision devices were set up when I was there ( as Railway Minister), had these devices been there the accident would not have occurred,” Ms. Banerjee later told presspersons at the accident site.
She added that priority remains rescue of passengers and restoration of normalcy.
The West Bengal Chief Minister also met Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw at the accident site.
With the Railway Minister by her side, Ms. Baneejee said that Railways is facing a “coordination gap” and that it should be accorded special treatment.
When Ms. Banerjee said that the death toll may rise to 500 as three bogies have not been searched the Railway Minister retorted by saying that rescue operation was over and the death toll was around 238. Later, the number of deaths rose to 288.
.Also read: Odisha train accident | Ashwini Vaishnaw, Naveen Patnaik and Mamata Banerjee visit site
The Chief Minister said that she was Railway Minister for three years and was part of the Railway family. Later, she visited the Balasore Hospital and met the victims of the accident.
31 deceased from West Bengal identified
Ms. Banerjee said many of the deceased and injured were from West Bengal and added that she was arranging buses to send people back to the State.
A State government press statement said that 31 casualties from West Bengal have been reported so far and 544 persons have been injured in the mishap. The State government has posted four senior IAS officers stationed at Balasore, to coordinate the relief operations.
During the day three trains arrived at Howrah Station. The first train with about 200 passengers arrived at about 12.30 hrs followed by train No. 12864 SMVT Bengaluru-Howrah, containing 17 coaches, arriving at 13:30 hrs today.
“Out of 635 passengers onboard, 33 passengers required medical assistance and were provided immediate first aid at Howrah Railway Station,” a State government statement said. In the evening a train with 700 passengers from Balasore arrived at the Howrah Station.
Abhishek demands Railway Minister’s resignation
Meanwhile, Trinamool Congress general secretary Abhishek Banerjee who postponed all the political programmes in the day, demanded the resignation of Mr.Vaishnaw. Mr. Banerjee said that Railways are in hurry to inaugurate new projects for political gains and are not spending on safety and security of passengers.
Mr. Banerjee said that none of the leaders of the BJP travel by train and are not concerned about the safety of railway passengers.
