New Delhi: Blood stained railway tracks, tumbled bogies lying apart and people running here there, this has become a quite often scene throughout the country over the last few years and the latest being the Rajya Rani Express mishap in Bihar.
The Indian Railway has recorded an all time high of forty six major accidents over the past three years killing at least 500 hundred people. The statistics raises a serious question about the passenger safety and security.
“The fair of the trains has not increased for the past ten years, so where from the money will come for taking adequate steps regarding security”, asks Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, the Minister of State for the railways.
The railway ministry has been in the hands of several regional parties, which at a certain point time became a major instrument for wooing the public to gain votes. Starting from Nitish Kumar led JD(U) to the Trinamool Congress, over the years it was used for playing the card of votes in the regional arena. “You know, it has been a trend that whoever becomes a railway minister will at some time or the other becomes a prominent political character, whether it was Mamata Bannerji or Nitish Kumar, they sort of take this ministry to gain profit and lure voters only by regional developments”, says political commentator Manjushree Chowdhury.
Thus with allegations of playing to the gallery, the railway fare remains unchanged for the last ten years as a result of which the security remains compromised for the lack of funds.
The fare of a 4km ride in Kolkata Metro Rail (under the India Railways) is Rs 4 whereas the same ride costs at least Rs 12 in Delhi. This resulted badly with metros often facing snags in peak hours and suffering badly due to lack of modernization in the city of joy.
The same is the story with other divisions of the railways with the working capital ratio hitting as low as 95%.
With a nationalist party like congress gaining back the ministry it is expected to make moves much beyond just regional politics and taking serious steps to rake up the security. The fare prices were hiked this year by almost 10%.
Rajnish Guha, a regular local train passenger in Mumbai explains how paying more won’t hurt the pockets if it is worth. “The thing is, we aren’t afraid of paying more if we get value and worth of what we are spending”, he says.
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