Bhubaneswar: After the train accident in Andhra Pradesh’s Vizianagaram district claimed at least 13 lives and left over 50 injured, Congress leaders in Odisha on Monday slammed the BJP-led government at the centre and demanded the resignation of Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw.
Addressing a press meet in Bhubaneswar, Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) president Sarat Pattanayak said all the claims made by the Centre about railway safety measures have turned out to be hollow.
After repeated train accidents in the country, people are now afraid of travelling by trains as the Railways failed to ensure safe journey.
Demanding the resignation of the Railway Minister over the Andhra Pradesh rail tragedy, the PCC chief alleged that Vaishnaw’s ‘publicity gimmicks” overshadowed the serious deficiencies, criminal negligence and complete disregard for safety and security of Indian Railways.
Attacking the Centre in same vein, senior Congress leader and MLA Tara Prasad Bahinipati lashed out at the Railway Minister and said claims made by him about safety measures appeared to have evaporated into thin air.
The senior legislator said that the accident has taken place a few months after the horrific three-train collision in at Bahanaga in Odisha’s Balasore district. It is a near repeat of the Bahanaga triple-train disaster, he said.
Stating that the Railway Minister has spoken about Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for rail safety at the time of Bahanaga train tragedy, Bahinipati sought to know as what happened to the SOP promised by Vaishnaw.
Claiming that no one seemed to be taking the Minister seriously, the Congress leader said the Minister only paid a visit to the mishap site and rushed to Chhattisgarh for election campaign.
Stating that many passengers from Odisha were injured in the accident, he accused the Railway Minister of being apathetic towards those affected by the mishap.
It may be noted here that a special passenger train going from Visakhapatnam to Palasa was on restricted speed on the main line and said to have slow down on tracks between Alamanda and Kantakapalle near Kothsavatsala because of no signal when the Vizag-Raigad passenger train rammed into it from behind on Sunday evening. Three coaches of Visakhapatnam-Palasa assenger and the locomotive and two coaches of the Rayagada passenger were badly damaged and capsized and thrown beside the track.
