Railway Board for CBI Probe into Odisha Train Mishap, Death Toll 275, Injured 1,175
Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, June 4: The Railway Board has recommended the Odisha train accident case be handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for further inquiry while the death toll officially was put at 275 on Sunday after the recovery of five more mutilated bodies from under the debris of the two passenger trains involved in the mishap.
The Railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said the Up Main Line (towards Chennai) and the Down Main line (towards Howrah) at Bahanaga Bazar in Balasore district in Odisha, the site of the train accident, have been now repaired.
The Odisha government on Sunday scaled down the official death toll from 288 to 275 stating that few bodies were counted twice. Altogether 1,175 injured persons have been referred to different hospitals and 793 had been discharged from hospitals.
Even as the Railway Board recommended a CBI inquiry into the horrific accident, a Public Interest Litigation was filed in the Supreme Court seeking for an independent probe under a retired judge of the apex court as the railway minister dismissed absence of the anti-collision devise for the accident and claimed the issue was of point machine and electronic interlocking. “The main cause of the accident has been identified. The change that was done to electronic interlocking which led to the accident has been identified,” Vaishnaw said while denying that the incident had anything to do with the anti-collision system “Kavach” as charged by the West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee.
“Keeping in mind all that happened, the information that the administration has, the Railways board has made a recommendation that the investigation be handed over to the CBI,” Vaishnaw told reporters. The minister had earlier attributed the horrific collision to a technical snag, and said all would be revealed soon in a report.
As Vaishnaw said the accident was caused by a change in “electronic interlocking,” the Railways said due to a “signalling interference”, the Coromandel Express met with an accident and its engine and coach crashed into a goods train laden with iron ore stationed on one of the loop lines.
Due to the impact, the coaches of the Coromandel Express also got thrown into the third track and rammed the Bengaluru-Howrah Superfast Express that was approaching at a high speed, the railways said. “Kavach”, the indigenously developed automatic train protection system, was not available on the route where the accident took place.
Jaya Verma Sinha, Member, Operations & BD, Railway Board, said no technology in the world can avert some accidents, citing examples of boulders suddenly dropping in front of vehicles. Critics, though, have flagged an audit report of railways which cited several serious lapses in rail safety. The report was tabled in the Parliament in September last year.
Shalimar-Chennai Coromandel Express (12841) took the wrong track instead of the main line at the Bahanaga Bazaar station in Balasore district of Odisha and crashed into a goods train stationed there. Coromandel Express was going at full speed as it was not supposed to stop at the station. In the impact, 21 coaches derailed and three of them jumped onto an adjacent track, through which the Yashwantpur-Howrah Express (12864) was travelling at the same time. The two rearmost coaches of the Yashwantpur-Howrah Express also derailed.
Rescue operations have more or less been completed after the Odisha train accident, National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) said on Sunday. Director General of NDRF Atul Karwal said, “The rescue operation is more or less complete. I don’t think there is any other possibility to locate any live or dead victim in this wreckage. It has been checked a few times.”
“Our response was prompt and effective. A total of nine teams comprising around 300 rescuers are at the location right now. I think Railways will look hard at this incident,” he added.
The U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Sunday spoke to his Indian counterpart S. Jaishankar and conveyed to him condolences to the families of the victims of the devastating train accident in Odisha. In a tweet, Mr. Jaishankar, who is currently on a visit to Namibia, said such sentiments are deeply valued at this difficult time. “Thank @SecBlinken for the phone call expressing his support and sympathy on the Odisha railway accident. Such sentiments are deeply valued at this difficult time,” the External Affairs Minister tweeted.
The railways on Sunday said even ticketless travellers on board the passenger trains involved in the Odisha accident would receive compensation. This is in line with a Supreme Court order, officials said. “Irrespective of the passengers being ticketless (or not), they will receive compensation,” railway spokesperson Amitabh Sharma said.
Speaking to reporters, Jaya Verma Sinha, Member of Operations and Business Development of the Railway Board, said every patient admitted in hospitals have a scout or a guide with him to help his kin to track him.
Mamata Banerjee on Sunday questioned the death figures given by the Ministry of Railways in the triple train crash in Odisha’s Balasore, stating that 61 people from her State were dead and 182 were still missing. “If from one state, 182 are missing and 61 are confirmed dead, then where would the figures stand?” she asked, addressing a press conference at the State secretariat, Nabanna.
Stating that Duronto Express trains introduced during her tenure as the railway minister were “pushed out of priority,” Mamata Banerjee asked whether the Vande Bharat Express trains’ engines were up to the mark. Asserting that the BJP forced her to speak out despite this being a very sad situation, she said, “It was being stated by some sections that so many people died during my tenure and that of Nitish Kumar or Lalu Prasad Yadav.” Banerjee said the new signal system and anti-collision device were introduced during her tenure as the railway minister.
“The name Vande Bharat is good, but you have seen what happened that day when a tree branch fell on it,” she said, about a mishap the Puri-Howrah Vande Bharat suffered on the second day after its inauguration.
“There is no doubt that the accident took place due to sheer negligence of the railways. They are not bothered about the safety of the passengers. It is quite surprising that even after such a major accident, nobody in the government has taken any responsibility,” said Bihar Deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav
“A thorough investigation must be ordered and strict action should be taken against those responsible. After this tragic incident, the Prime Minister should have held a press conference and clarified things. The incident is a total failure of the Government of India, the railway minister, and the PM,” he added.
