Kunal Kamra claims nearly 22,000 people died in rail accidents in 2023, Railways fact checks, says 21,803 died

Indian Railways' social media fact checker, Railway Fact Check, replied to comedian Kunal Kamra over his now viral video highlighting the state of the railways in the country.

"Certain facts and footage in this video are misleading in nature and is an attempt to sabotage the image of Railways . Kindly refrain from sharing such misleading content," the Railways said in a post, attaching the comedian's pictures.

Kamra asked for an explanation for the reply, requesting the Railways to point out the factual errors.

The subsequent reply from one of India's largest Public Sector Undertakings has left netizens stunned.

Pointing to Kamra's claim that there were nearly 25,000 railway accidents in 2023, the social media handle of the railways said that the claim was wrong and that there were 24,678 accidents.

Further, the Railways said there were 21,803 deaths in the year mentioned, as opposed to the claim that said nearly 22,000 deaths were reported.

The reply garnered several comments on social media, with netizens trolling the railways for its "fact check".

One user said, "This is not fact check, this is double verification," while another jokingly asked "Are you dumb(?)". Another user said, "What is this fact check (?) Do you understand approximate?"

However, the Railways also countered Kamra's claim that loco-pilots are overworked with several night shifts, to which the Railways said the HOER law lays down prescribed rest and working period for the loco-pilots. It also rubbished the claim saying every year 400 track maintainers lose their lives, saying this is a figure over the years, which includes unrelated deaths.

Kamra also claimed that there were several accidents due to signal failures, to which the Railways said there were 1,711 such incidents from 2004-14, which had drastically reduced to 34 last year and 10 so far this year, adding that signal failure details are available in public domain.

Yet another claim that was fact-checked was that the budget for new tracks had been reduced, to which the Railways said that budget had almost doubled from Rs 8,884 crore in 2017-18 to 16,558 crore in FY22, adding that 5,950 km of new tracks were laid in 2023-24.