Railways is perhaps the most preferred mode of transport, as far as India’s middleclass, lower middleclass, and the poor are concerned. Simply, because it is the most economical means of transportation. I am showing you two pictures here, one of Balasore in Odisha exactly a year back in June 2023, and here is another picture of Kanchanjunga Express, which met with an accident in West Bengal yesterday, killing 15 people and injuring 40 others, Congress leader Supriya Shrinate told media.
1,117 rail accidents, according to the government data, have happened in the last 9 years, from 2014 to 2023, which means an accident every three days and these accidents have resulted in loss of life and property. There is a list of accidents that I can keep going on, but who is responsible? Who is going to take the moral responsibility for this? We have seen Railway Ministers in the past own up moral responsibility, resign from their positions of influence in power, but here, we have a Railway Minister, who does not miss an opportunity, even in the time of plight, even in the time of tragedy to make reels.
He is not the Railway Minister, he is actually the ‘Reel Minister’ of India and even when he went to Darjeeling, even when he went to the site in West Bengal, yesterday, he was riding pillion on a bike, why- without a helmet, so that he would be better captured in a video, is that what your priority is? Because quite frankly, the ‘KAVACH’ protection scheme that you spoke about has completely failed this country and has failed the Indian Railways.
What explains the 3,12,000 vacancies in the Indian Railways? What explains the 21 per cent vacant positions for loco pilots, People responsible to run the railways safely and it is because, there are human errors, tragedies and accidents like this happen. They are made to work extra hours, sometimes 12, 14, 16 hours a day, how do you expect railways to be safe? The reality also is that funds, that were earmarked for the safety of Indian Railways, the The Rashtriya Rail Sanraksha Kosh (RRSK) was the earmarked with Rs. 20,000 crores worth of funds, Rs. 15,000 crores will come from the central government, Rs. 5,000 crores from railways internal accruals in revenues.
They have been able to amass only Rs. 4,225 crores and the reality is even that money has been spent on procuring crockery and furniture, making gardens,
8 buying foot massagers, computers, escalators, is this your priority? There is Depreciation Reserve Fund (DRF), out of Rs. 58,459 crore that were supposed to be utilized, you utilized only Rs. 600 crores, what is your priority? You have an issue with overflowing coaches with people, but why are they there? Because there are not ample number of trains. 2 crore 71 lakh people could not travel the last fiscal because their tickets did not get confirmed. Why did they not get confirmed, because there are no adequate seats, there is no adequate railways facility available.