CS June 2023 | Page 2

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Founder Editor KANU SANYAL

Editor-in-Chief

VISWAM

Editorial Board Arvind Sinha Shambhu Mahato Nand Kishore Singh

Vol . 15 Issue : 06 June , 2023 e-mail : clastrugle @ yahoo . co . in Web site : www . classstruggle . in

For Details :

Class Struggle 32-13-26 / 1 , M . R . Puram , Vijayawada , pin-520 010 .

This is a manmade disaster created by the railway administration and the Central government with utmost callousness undermining the safety and welfare of the passengers ; which cannot be termed as an accident but must be recognised as a crime perpetuated by the rulers and the railway administration with culpable negligence and untold carelessness towards the people and particularly the passengers and their safety .

For the past few decades the Central government and the railway administration instead of running railways and strengthening it into an effective public transport that caters the needs of the people of this country , they have been moulding it into a commercial transport , carving it to the private sector to gain profits at the cost of the safety and welfare interests of the passengers . The railways are being reduced in to a transport system that caters the needs of the newly emerging urban elite , due to the spread of IT servicing industry and the of the corporates

By converting passenger trains into express trains common man is denied easy access to rail travel . High-speed trains such as superfast expresses and ultra super speed expresses like Vande Bharat expresses are being introduced in the name of cutting the travelling time to the lowest possible extent , serving the interests of the rich and the business elite . All this is being projected as development and modernization of railways to the world-class standards and the requirements of 21 st century . By the so-called modernization of the railway stations etc . the private business community and private contractors are facilitated with thriving business and profits .

Almost all the passenger trains throughout the country have been cancelled and their operation is completely stopped ; removing any scope for rural poor and needy common passengers to travel . Various concessions provided to the elderly and physically handicapped etc . are removed . The fares have been abnormally increased .

Scarce attention is being paid for safety of railways ; particularly in track maintenance . In the name of automation and technology , the number of staff working in the track maintenance and daily track inspection is considerably reduced . In the name of cutting costs , the number of track men is reduced . Instead of human inspection of the tracks , devices are introduced .

Most of the derailing of express trains occur by their abnormal high speed and by improper condition of the track . It could be due to lack of strong soil conditions of the track on which the ultra-high-speed trains are run or due to improper maintenance and inadequate inspection of the condition of the tracks . Almost all the major train “ accidents ” occurred in our country from 1998 are due to derailing of trains running on tracks of improper condition .

Even the Comptroller and Audit General ( CAG ), in its study of railway accidents occurred from 2017-18 to 2020-2021 had specifically pointed out that 171 accidents out of 422 accidents occurred due to failure of proper inspection of tracks and recommended that track inspection and maintenance must be improved . It had also specifically pointed out that railways are reducing the funds for renewal of tracks every year . While in 2018-2019 railways allotted Rs . 9607.65 crores for track renewal and maintenance , in 2019-2020 they were reduced to mere 7417 crores , and even this amount was not fully utilised by railways . The CAG also pointed out that from 2017 to 2021 there were 1127 cases of derailment accidents out of which 286 accidents are connected to track renewal problem .

This lack of attention and seriousness for the safety of railway passengers is due to the policies imposed by the Central government and lack of carefulness on the part of railway administration . That even after a lapse of one day of the occurrence of the accident , the railway administration is unable hesitating in providing the exact cause of accident is itself a proof that how the

Class Struggle