Bihar derailment: Latest editorial in Sena (UBT) mouthpiece Saamana questions railway safety

Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India]: Saamana, the official mouthpiece of the Shiv Sena (UBT), raised questions on the functioning of the Indian Railways and passenger safety after 21 coaches of the North-East Express derailed in Bihar’s Buxar district on Wednesday night, leaving four passengers dead and over 30 injured.

In its latest editorial published on Friday, the Saamana took a dig at the BJP-led Centre over its claims of bringing an overhaul of railway assets, services and infrastructure.

“After any railway accident, discussions continue for a few days around the possible causes, be it technical flaws, human mistakes or conspiracy. An inquiry committee or commission is formed and a report is presented.

The mistakes of the Railway department are highlighted and questions are also raised on the security measures. But till the time such a report is submitted, a new accident is reported and followed by the same tedious process of inquiry and report,” the editorial stated.

Claiming that this bureaucratic process repeats itself as the focus shifts from one railway accident to another, the editorial stated, “For the last few years, the Modi government has been playing up the supposed overhaul in the security mechanism of the Railways.

If the system has, indeed, been overhauled, why are railway accidents happening time and again? Earlier, three trains collided with each other in Balasore, leaving 295 passengers dead. As many as 28 unidentified bodies from the accident were cremated only on Wednesday, after four months.”

Quoting the death toll from the Bihar train derailment at six, the Saamana editorial stated, “Even before the pyres of these unclaimed victims from Balasore could die out, six passengers lost their lives after 21 coaches of the North East Express derailed in Bihar.

More than a hundred passengers were injured. Now the government should come clean on whether such accidents are the result of its negligence or lax passenger safety.”

While the Railways launched an inquiry into the derailment of coaches, the article stated that there was no evidence yet to suggest that the accident was an act of sabotage.

The North East Express had rolled out of the Anand Vihar Terminal in Delhi and was heading to Kamakhya in Assam when 21 coaches derailed at 9.35 pm on Wednesday near Raghunathpur station of the Danapur division of the East Central Railway.