Johnson Cherian.
On November 20 last, 14 coaches of the Patna-bound train derailed between Pokhrayan and Malasa stations in Uttar Pradesh, killing152 passengers and injuring 183.
Six months after the derailment of the Indore-Rajendranagar Express near Kanpur that claimed over 150 lives, investigating agencies are yet to ascertain the cause of the accident. The Commission of Railway Safety (CRS) has not submitted its preliminary report.
“It is informed that the preliminary report of the said accident is not available in the office,” Rajiv Kumar, Deputy Commissioner of Railway Safety, said in response to a query under the Right to Information (RTI) Act posed by The Hindu, on May 15.
On November 20 last, 14 coaches of the Patna-bound train derailed between Pokhrayan and Malasa stations in Uttar Pradesh, killing152 passengers and injuring 183.
According to the rules, the CRS has to submit a preliminary report to the Chief Commissioner of Railway Safety and the Railway Board Secretary within one month of the inquiry, and it has to make the report public as well. The CRS, working under the Civil Aviation Ministry, then submits a detailed report within six months of the inquiry to the Chief Commissioner.
Commissioner of Railway Safety (Eastern Circle) P.K. Acharya, who is inquiring into the matter, declined to comment.
Civil Aviation Secretary R.N. Choubey didn’t respond to an e-mail questionnaire.
The accident became a high profile case after Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu, suspecting sabotage, had written to Home Minister Rajnath Singh demanding a high level investigation.
The Home Ministry then forwarded the case to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to probe the sabotage angle.
“This matter is being monitored at the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) level. We are awaiting an inquiry report from the NIA, which had taken up the investigation soon after the accident,” said a senior CRS official, on condition of anonymity. However, NIA officials said they were yet to get a report from the Commission and a team of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) experts to finalise their investigation.
Even Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a speech during one of his election rallies had termed the accident a cross-border “conspiracy.”
The CRS’ initial inquiry, which was held up for submission to the authorities after the NIA started a probe into the case, had identified ‘carriage and wagon defects’ as the prime reason for the accident.
At a high level security meeting chaired by Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu with Director General of Police of all States and Union Territories on February 27, Minister of State Home Affairs Hansraj Gangaram Ahir and Railway Police Force (RPF) Director General S.K. Bhagat raised concern over rising cases of sabotage in the country.
To buttress his point, Mr. Bhagat mentioned about an incident where a mentally unstable person was found placing a boulder on rail track, as per Minutes of the Meeting reviewed by The Hindu.
“It is pertinent to mention that due to active support and cooperation of the States and Civil Police, we could prevent some of the cases of sabotage. Due to our efforts, a mentally unstable person was caught red-handed while placing a boulder weighing about 20 kg on a track between Tulsipur and Gansari stations in North Eastern Railway over Uttar Pradesh,” he said.
Mr. Bhagat added that as against 45 incidents of sabotage cases reported in last two years, 33 sabotage cases were reported in the current year up to February 23. However, none of the State police chiefs concurred with railway officials that sabotage could have been the reason behind rising train derailments, which Mr. Prabhu termed as “unusual activities” that “instilled a sense of fear amongst the travelling passengers.” In fact, the Uttar Pradesh DGP highlighted the poor conditions of railway track and coaches. “He raised the issue of poor maintenance of railway track. The maintenance of coaches too is not up to the mark. Poor maintenance issues are to be looked into as they are very serious in nature,” he had said.
