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National

Passenger safety must be ensured, says Buddhadeb

Special Correspondent

Railway Ministry can seek CBI inquiry: Biman Bose

Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee

KOLKATA: Expressing his deep sorrow over the deaths in the train accident at Sainthia in the State's Birbhum district in the early hours of Monday, Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee underlined the need for a serious look into matters related to proper maintenance and ensuring safety of passengers by the authorities concerned.

The State administration has deployed all its resources to tackle the situation arising from the tragic incident and the district administration, the police as well as the health department were engaged in rescue work and in treating the injured, Mr. Bhattacharjee said in a statement.

Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee's attention should be focussed more on the safety and security of railway passengers rather than on frequent inaugurations of new train services, said Biman Bose, chairman of the Left Front Committee in West Bengaleven as he expressed his anguish over the incident.

Calling for a thorough probe into the tragedy, Mr. Bose said that if the Railway Ministry considered that its own arrangements for such an inquiry “are not adequate, it may ask for an inquiry by the Central Bureau of Investigation.” There should be an inquiry to find out the reasons and whether it was the result of any negligence on the part of the railways, Mr. Bose said.

Mr. Bose also demanded the filling up of a large number of vacancies by the Railway Ministry.

“The Railway Ministry should give importance to the filling up of some very critical posts related to safety and security and which were essential for the proper running of trains”, he asserted.

Citing statistics, Mr Bose said that presently 90,883 posts were lying vacant, including those of drivers, gang-man, cable-man, lever-man and points-man, all of which were essential for the safe running of trains.

At least 15 train accidents had occurred across the country over the past year, only two of which had occurred in West Bengal, he pointed out debunking the remarks made earlier in the day by leaders of the Trinamool and the Congress that frequent accidents in the State had got them to suspect there was a conspiracy against the railways in West Bengal.

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