NCP Questions Non-Compliance Of CAG Report On Rail Safety As It Demands Ashwini Vaishnav's Resignation

NCP sought to know why the measures of CAG report were not implemented which highlighted multiple shortcomings. It revealed 24 factors responsible for derailments.

NCP questions non-adherence of CAG report on train disasters

Source : PTI File Photo

The Nationalist Congress Party on Sunday sought to know why the measures suggested by Comptroller General of India in one of its reports in 2022 for prevention of train disasters were not implemented by the Centre and asked if this was not enough this non-adherence was not enough for Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw to resign in the wake of the Odisha train tragedy. As per the report, train accidents were waiting to happen due to several shortcomings, the party alleged. 

It blamed the railway minister and the ministry for failing to take the warning seriously, as per news agency PTI.

The 2022 report on 'Derailments in Indian Railways' highlighted multiple shortcomings. It revealed 24 factors responsible for derailments. There are many points of serious nature in that report that point out the fact that train accidents were waiting to happen, party spokesperson Clyde Crasto said in a statement.

Questioning whether Vaishnaw had read the report, the NCP spokesperson said that the main focus of the CAG audit was to ascertain whether measures to prevent derailments and collisions were clearly laid down and implemented by the Ministry of Railways.

After the Odisha train accident, it clearly appears that the audit report was not adhered to, Crasto alleged.

''If he did, then why was it not taken seriously and why were the suggestions of the CAG not put into implementation immediately?" he sought to know.

Is this not enough reason for Ashwini Vaishnaw to tender his resignation, Crasto asked.

Several opposition parties have been targeting the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Centre and Vaishnaw over the Kavach anti-collision system, which the Railways spokesperson Amitabh Sharma said, was not installed on the route. 

275 people were reported dead and over a thousand injured after three trains — Shalimar-Chennai Coromandel Express, SMVT Bengaluru–Howrah SF Express, and a freight train — collided after Coromandel Express derailed near Bahanaga railway station in Odisha’s Balasore district on Friday night.