BHUBANESWAR, 5 June 2023: The BJP has been accused of playing politics using the rail tragedy in Balasore which claimed 275 lives. The tragedy has led to a war of words as to who is responsible for the accident. Odisha CM Navin Patnaik has made no political statement as the state comes to terms with the tragedy and concentrates on relief steps for families of those killed and injured.
Many Chief Ministers and senior political leaders across India have accused the central government of failure leading to the ghastly railway accident. The Railways Ministry falls under the central government ruled by the BJP, which is in the opposition in Odisha.
From the Indian Express:
How does the railways system sense whether a track is occupied, and what happened in #Odisha?
Here is a thread (1/5). For the full story, click here: https://t.co/RkQAzufVmI pic.twitter.com/vbbDtiwn5F
— Express Explained 🔍 (@ieexplained) June 5, 2023
The ANI reports from New York Congress leader Rahul Gandhi hit out at the BJP-led government at the Centre over the Odisha triple train accident, claiming that the only ideology that it espouses is to make excuses not accept the reality.
Media reports say, police have registered a criminal case of “death by negligence”, as critics accused the central government of trying to shift blame for the disaster on a signalling failure which led one train to switch track on the main line to the loop line, where a stationary freight train was filled with heavy iron ore.
Guardian Australia reports, ” The signalling system is used across India’s entire 40,000-mile network. On Monday, the railway board ordered a widespread examination of the system, with all 19 zones across the country required to submit safety reports by next week.
The government also requested that the central bureau of investigation (CBI), a government agency, begin a criminal investigation into the collision, an indication that arrests could be made. A CBI team travelled to the site on Monday evening, seeking to establish if any criminal tampering was involved in the signal failure.”
The Indian Railways system, the world’s biggest, is 40,000 mile-network in 19 zones across the country carries 13 million passengers daily.
Earlier, PM Modi while visiting the accident site said, ” “Those found guilty will be severely punished”.
Meanwhile, Indian Railways has announced it has started running passenger trains on the tracks in Bahanaga village in Odisha’s Balasore which were affected due to the triple train accident.
The three-way accident involved Bengaluru-Howrah Superfast Express, the Coromandel Express and a goods trains on three separate tracks at Bahanaga Bazar Station in the Balasore district.
Earlier today, Ashwini Vaishnaw said that the tragic train accident in Odisha’s Balasore occurred due to a “change in electronic interlocking”.
Electronic interlocking is an arrangement of signal apparatus that prevents conflicting movements between trains through an arrangement of tracks. It is basically a safety measure to prevent signals from being changed in improper sequence. The aim of this system is that no train gets the signal to proceed unless the route is proven safe.
Speaking to ANI, Union Minister of Railways Ashwini Vaishnav said, “This is a different issue. This is about Point Machine, electronic interlocking. The change that occured during electronic interlocking, it happened due to that. Whoever did it and how it occured will be detected after proper investigation”.
