Empty claims exposed, CBI not equipped to probe rail accidents: Kharge to PM

Recalling the Kanpur derailment in 2016, he said NIA was asked to investigate & subsequently at a rally in 2017, Modi himself claimed there was a 'conspiracy'

Congress on Monday found fault with the Narendra Modi government for announcing a probe by CBI into the Odisha train tragedy, saying the agency has no expertise in railways and cannot fix accountability for technical, institutional and political failures.

It also recalled the NIA refusing to file chargesheet in the 2016 Kanpur rail tragedy in which 150 people were killed, even after Prime Minister Modi himself indicated sabotage in an election rally. On Sunday, Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw announced a CBI probe into the incident.

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In a letter to the Prime Minister, Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge claimed that both Modi and Vaishnaw “do not want to admit that there are problems”. He said Vaishnaw has claimed that he has found the root cause but yet wanted a CBI probe though the agency is meant to investigate crimes and not rail accidents.

Kharge, also a former railway minister, said the CBI, or any other law enforcement agency, cannot fix accountability for technical, institutional and political failures. In addition, he said, they lack the technical expertise in railway safety, signalling, and maintenance practices.

Recalling the Kanpur derailment in 2016, he said the NIA was asked to investigate and subsequently at an election rally in 2017, Modi himself claimed there was a “conspiracy”. Though called to investigate, he said the NIA closed the probe in 2018 and refused to file a chargesheet.

“The nation is still in the dark – who is responsible for 150 avoidable deaths (in 2016)? The statements so far and the roping in of yet another agency without the required expertise, remind us of 2016. They show that your government has no intent to address the systemic safety malaise, but is instead finding diversionary tactics to derail any attempts to fix accountability,” he said.

Claiming that the Odisha tragedy has exposed the “empty safety claims” of Vaishnaw, he said there is serious concern among the common passengers about this deterioration in safety.

“Today, the most crucial step is to prioritise installation of mandatory safety standards and equipment across railway routes to ensure safety of our passengers and no recurrence of an accident like the one at Balasore,” he said.

Alleging that only “superficial touch up is being done to stay in news” instead of focussing on strengthening railways at the basic level, Kharge listed a number of deficiencies, including delay in filling up three lakh vacancies, longer working hours of loco pilots and inaction on a warning by a senior official of South Western Railways among others.

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Questioning the vacancies, he said the East Coast Railway where the accident took place alone has 8,278 vacant posts. He said the number of employees in Railways have come down from 18 lakh in the 1990s to 12 lakh now, of which 3.18 are on contract.

“Vacant posts pose a threat to the assured jobs of people who belong to SC, ST, OBC and EWS. It is a pertinent question to ask - why have such a high number of vacancies not been filled over the last years?” he said even as he also questioned not filling positions of loco pilots.

He also highlighted the report by South West Zonal Railways’ Principal Chief Operating Manager who “forewarned about potential accidents in the future” due to flaws in the signal system in February this year while asking “why and how could the Ministry of Railways ignore this crucial warning”.

Kharge referred to a CAG report which spoke about 70 per cent of train accidents happening due to train derailments. He also questioned why there was zero testing of rail and weld (track maintenance) for safety in East Coast Railway between 2017 and 2021 and why these “red flags were ignored”.

The Congress President found fault with the merging of Railway Budget with Union Budget and asked whether it has not adversely affected the autonomy and decision making capacity of the Indian Railways.