People throughout the country have expressed resentment at the frequent railway accidents during the past one year. The frequency of accidents in the Indian Railways is worrying one and all. In West Bengal silent processions were taken out throughout the State, offering condolences to the families of those killed and injured in the accident and demanding resignation of the Railway Minister and other responsible officials. The precisionists condemned the callousness of the Railway Minister for throwing to the winds the security of the travelling passengers.

From Lal Bahadur Shastri to Nitish Kumar -- there have been manifold increases in railway freight and fares. Yet, the Railways' concern about the safety of passengers has witnessed an alarming reduction. Instead of attempting full-proof arrangements to prevent accidents the Union Government has tended to adopt ad-hoc corrective measures after each accident, waiting for another accident to highlight other inadequacies. It is also alleged that a major part of funds allotted for maintenance of railway tracks has been spent in sections of the railway which fall within the jurisdiction of constituencies of the Railway minister and other VIPs of the ruling combine. To save the face of the party in the run up to an election to the Lok Sabha, the present railway Minister has been forced to resign. But seldom does such accidents or Minister's resignation force the government to undertake schemes for overhauling the Railway administration.

The 'able' Prime Minister of the BJP, Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee has, again after the Gaisal disaster announced his government's determination to reorganize the security arrangements of the Indian Railways, keeping an eye on the impending elections. He has also directed the Railway Board Chairman, Mr. V.K. Agarwal to announce a 14-point programme to refurbish the safety arrangements in the Railways. Incidentally, upon his assumption of office the outgoing Railway Minister had announced with many fanfares the setting up of a commission to recommend the gearing up of security arrangements for passengers. But the Commission's recommendations are yet to see the light of the day. The Prime Minister and his Railway Minister have never failed to announce measures for improving the Railway operations in public meetings, Parliament and other forums. But no concrete measures have followed.

After the BJP-led combine assumed power at the Centre in March 1998, the Jammu-Tawai Express rammed into the derailed bogies of the Amritsar-bound Frontier Golden Temple Mail near Ludhiana, killing 108 passengers. The postmortem of the accident revealed that a communications gap had caused the accident. The drivers of the two trains were not informed beforehand that the tracks had been blocked because of the derailment. Had the drivers of the ill-fated trains given advance notice of the situation on the tracks, the accident could have been averted. In the aftermath of the accident the introduction of automatic signaling on all routes was stressed. But nothing much was done in this respect.

Another cause of railway accidents is the introduction of new trains - primarily dictated by political pressures - without enhancing the maintenance and operating capabilities. At present 11,000 trains run daily on the Indian Railways of which 7,500 are passenger trains. In the last four years 500 new passenger trains have been introduced, let alone the fast Shatapdi trains. Many of these new trains are allowed to operate with inherent operation deficiencies that usually result in accidents. In the eastern region the maintenance of the railway system has assumed serious proportion due to the shortage of equipment and a reduction of competent technical staff. The Gaisal accident was the result of a lethargic ministry that has thrown to the winds the safety and security of the passengers.

There have certainly been instances of restraint on the part of Railway Ministers in introducing new trains on considerations of passenger safety. For instance, on grounds of safety Ram Bilas Paswan, the Railway Minister in the last United Front Government, had kept in abeyance the introduction of a Shatapdi train between Amritsar and New Delhi. He had also allowed the Delhi-Bhopal Shatabdi Express to run on 24 instead of the 77 proposed days, and that too with a reduced speed. But the current New Delhi regime is primarily interested in deriving political mileage in introducing new trains, throwing to the winds all considerations of public safety.