Sibal cites govt inadequacies behind Odisha rail tragedy

Rajya Sabha MP Kapil Sibal on Sunday attacked the government over the railway tragedy in Odisha, and said one minister cannot deal with large ministries such as Railways as well as Communications, Electronics and Information Technology, as was being done by Ashwini Vaishnaw.

The accident involving two passenger trains and a goods train in Odisha’s Balasore district killed at least 288 people and injured more than 1100, in one of the worst railway tragedies in the country.

In a tweet, Sibal said, “Ashwini Vaishnaw, Minister for IT and Electronics, Minister for Railways. No Railway Budget. No Accountability. One minister cannot deal with such large ministries. Bullet Trains. Vande Bharat. Serve the extraordinary, let down the ordinary! Recipe for disaster !”

“Tragedies –Total derailments; 257(2017-18); 526 (2018-19) ; 399 (2019-20)…Reasons (CAG): 1)Maintenance of track (167); 2)Deviation of track parameters(149); 3)Bad driving(144). For the Rs.1 lakh cr. allocated 2017-22) for safety, Railways failed to deposit even Rs. 5000 cr each year!” he claimed in another tweet.

Sibal, who was a Union minister during the UPA 1 and UPA 2 governments, quit the Congress in May last year and was elected to the Rajya Sabha as an Independent member with the Samajwadi Party’s support.  He recently floated the non-electoral platform ‘Insaaf’, aimed at fighting injustice.

With inputs from News18, PTI

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