Chennai: Blaming Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union government for the horrendous train tragedy in Odisha, DMK leader A Raja on Saturday demanded a speedy and transparent inquiry so as to fix accountability. The train mishap took place despite the availability of advanced technology clearly shows the failure of the Railway Ministry whose focus and priority are lopsided, he alleged.
“This is the result of a government that is only engaged in publicity and selling a fake narrative without giving the required attention to the safety of commuters. In successive CAG reports and CVC reports, railways have been topping the list of ministries hauled up for malpractices,” he said addressing the media at the DMK headquarters, Anna Arivalayam, in Chennai. “The accident has made the Union government dumbfounded as it is clueless. The silence of the PM and the Railway Minister raises questions,” he added.
Also read: Odisha triple train accident: Death toll climbs to 288, over 800 injured
“The DMK does not want to politicise the issue. But, at the same time, we want to know whether it was a failure of the system or of individuals. If it is the system, whether any step has been taken to fix accountability. In the past, from Lal Bahadur Shastri to Nitish Kumar and Mamata Banerjee have resigned owning moral responsibility for accidents. We need to fix accountability. We will meet the President and also raise the issue in Parliament,” the former Union Minister said adding, “The report of the inquiry should be placed in the public domain and also taken up for discussion in Parliament.”
He drew attention to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee squarely blaming the Centre for the mishap and the Railway Minister, who was also present, remaining silent. “In the presence of the Railway Minister, she said the anti-collision system TCAS was developed when she was heading the ministry (in the UPA government). The present government had rechristened it as 'Kavach', but had installed it only to cover 1500 km of the total 70,000 km railway tracks, despite funds being allotted,” he pointed out. Taking a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the DMK veteran said the priority appears to be inaugurating Vande Bharat trains. That is why he is flagging every new Vande Bharat service instead of his Cabinet colleagues or officials.
