Railway accidents these days do not evoke worries or reactions even as they occur fairly in regular intervals throughout the year. There was a time when railway accidents would lead to resignation by the railway minister on grounds of moral responsibility. The opposition too sought resignation from the railway minister as he headed this huge establishment and was held responsible for acts of omissions and commissions and the loss of precious lives and Govt property. But this was long time back.

Now, it has almost become a ritual of sorts with the railway minister visiting the injured at hospitals, announcing ex-gratia payment of Rs One Lakh for the deceased, 50000 for critically injured and Rs 25000 for simple injury. Along with it the Govt also announces an independent investigation by an impartial body for probing into the cause of the accident. Since, Independence our country has witnessed a large number of railway accidents-big or small. Big ones do hog the limelight, while small ones rarely get noticed.

However, despite the probe into the accidents rarely the culprit gets sentenced or put in jail for the negligence on his part. In contrast, we seldom here reports of such large accidents from abroad. The question is why accidents of such scale occur only in our country?  During UPA-1 regime, Mr. Lalu Yadav held the post of the railways minister, while in UPA-2, it was Ms. Mamata Banerjee given the charge of railways. Both of them decided not to hike railway fare. While Mr. Yadav claimed making railways the centre of profit despite no hike in fares, the latter submitted a white paper providing in detail the functioning of railways and its present situation. Rubbishing the claim of Mr. Yadav, Ms. Mamata said Mr. Yadav’s claim was nothing but a statistical jugglery. In fact, basking in the glory of no fare hike as the great accomplishment has led to lower attention on passenger safety.

Today people want a safe and secure journey and for this they don’t mind whether fare is higher. This is well evident in the preference being given to premier trains like Rajdhani and Shatabdi express. It’s only when they fail in getting their booking done in these trains that they go for other trains. In fact, the Indian Railways is one the first example in the world which deftly defies the logic of economics. Despite surging demand and weak supply position, trains here run in losses!

The example of Delhi Metro clearly shows that if a work is done in true spirit then there is no cause of worry over incurring hefty losses. The priority should be on safety rather than keeping fares low. Every year a sling of new trains are announced but still when one goes for booking, chances are there he won’t get reservation in trains of his choice, Despite tall claims made by the railways in checking  the menace of touts, the ticket booking process is still riddled with problems. If people pay premium to touts, reservation becomes very easy but the question is why one should pay extra to touts when the same could be offered to railways for getting a confirmed ticket. It was on this premise that railways launched the Tatkal Scheme, which is now in complete mess.

Despite railways knowing the problem, steps are hardly being taken to prevent them. In fact, the railways minister, it seems, is more interested in protecting his vote bank. The accidents could be stopped only when the railway minister takes cognizance of the problems and comes out with effective solutions with greater accountability. Safety of the passengers should always be the topmost priority of the Govt.

Leaving everything on God and ignoring the safety norms may bear disastrous results. It’s high time, the Centre should take effective measures in checking the rot that is spreading in the railways or else it will repeat the ignominious story of Air India and Indian Airlines.

Rajesh Gupta

Readers’ comments are welcome at rgupta@nnsonline.com