Workers repairing a railway track at the site where the triple-train accident took place on Friday, near Bahanga Bazar railway station in Balasore district on June 6, 2023. , Photo Credit: PTI
Leader of the Opposition in West Bengal Shubhendu Adhikari on June 5 alleged that the Trinamool Congress (TMC) was behind the Odisha train accident in which at least 275 people were killed. On June 2, there was a three-train accident involving Bengaluru-Howrah Superfast Express, Coromandel Express and a goods train on three different tracks at Bahanaga Bazar station in Balasore district.
“this incident [train accident] There is a conspiracy of TMC. They are behind this incident,” alleged the officer. “Why are they so nervous since yesterday when this incident is from another state? Why are they afraid of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe?”
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader referred to a purported audio clip of a conversation between two railway officials posted on Twitter by TMC leader Kunal Ghosh on June 4. He further said, “These people tapped the phones with the help of the police. Both Railway officers. How did these people know about the conversation between the two railway officials? How did the conversation get leaked? This should come in the CBI investigation. If he does not come, I will go to court.
Earlier on June 5, stepping up her attack on the central government, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee criticized the Railway Board’s decision to hand over the Odisha train accident probe to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), saying that “this matter Is.” No time to suppress the truth”.
I had also given the Dnyaneshwari Express case to the CBI but there was no result. Twelve years [have passed] But we don’t see any result. CBI handles criminal and accident cases. The Commission of Railway Safety is there,” she remarked.
At least 275 people were killed, while more than 1,000 were injured in the accident near Bahanaga Bazar area. Mamata Banerjee arrived at the crash site in Balasore on June 3 to oversee the rescue operations and questioned why the Centre’s ‘Kavach’ system was missing from the collision track. Ms. Banerjee, who was last Union Railway Minister during the Congress-led UPA-2 regime in 2009-2011, termed the incident as the “biggest rail accident of the 21st century” and said that if the Kavach system was in place, it would have happened. does not happen. ,
“Coromandel is one of the best express trains. I was the railway minister thrice. From what I have seen, this is the biggest train accident of the 21st century. Such cases are referred to the Commission of Safety of Railways and they investigate and give a report. As far as I know, there was no anti-collision device on the train. This would not have happened if the device was on the train. The dead cannot be brought back, but now our job is to carry out rescue operations and restore normalcy,” the West Bengal Chief Minister said while addressing reporters in Balasore on June 3 in the presence of the Union Railway Minister.
Kavach is an indigenous Train Collision Avoidance System (TCAS). Developed by Ministry of Railways. After Mamata Banerjee questioned the Railways over the absence of the ‘Kavach’ system, citing it as the reason behind the Balasore triple train tragedy, Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnav on June 3 said the accident had nothing to do with the anti-collision system Not there. Speaking to Asian News International (ANI), Mr Vaishnav said that the accident happened due to change in electronic interlocking. Change in electronic interlocking,” the railway minister told ANI. “It is a completely different issue, it involves point machines, electronic interlocking. This is due to the change that occurred during electronic interlocking. Who did this and how it happened will be known after proper investigation.”