Press statement of DMW Employees Union – Indian Railway Employees Federation (IREF)
The day of 2nd June 2023 will be remembered as a dark day of tragedy in the history of Indian Railways. The news of the death of more than 300 people in the gruesome accident at Bahanaga Bazar station of Kharagpur division of South Eastern Railway has left every eye moist. We on behalf of Indian Railway Employees Federation (IREF), affiliated to All India Central Council for Trade Unions (AICCTU), express our full sympathies with the aggrieved families.
We believe that no amount of relief provided by the Indian Railways and the government of the country can heal the wounds of the victims’ families. We need to learn a lesson from this tragic incident. This was said by Shri Manoj Kumar Pandey, President, Shri Sarvjit Singh, General Secretary, Shri Jumerdeen, Organization Secretary, Indian Railway Employees Federation while issuing a statement to the press after a meeting of the Federation.
It is worth mentioning that yesterday, on 2 June, 22-coach Bengaluru-Howrah Express train number 12864, which was going towards Howrah, got derailed while passing through Bahanaga Bazar station, and three-four bogies of the train fell on the other line. At the same time, Shalimar-Chennai Express train number 12841 with 23 coaches arrived, which collided with the coaches and rammed into a goods train standing on the third line, due to which hundreds of precious lives were lost and the country lost crores of rupees.
IREF leaders said that the government of the country and the administration of Indian Railways should take this accident seriously. They said that it is regrettable that the attention of the government is only towards the Vande Bharat train, other trains have no importance in their view.
Comrades Manoj Pandey, Sarvjit Singh, Jumerdeen, while discussing the reasons for the accident, said that due to the scorching heat, rail lines can be damaged, which in technical language is called rail track buckling.
The second reason is the huge shortage of employees in the Indian Railways, because of which existing employees are not able to get proper rest and remain under heavy physical, mental and social pressure. This fact has also been accepted by the Indian Railway Administration and recruitment in railways is talked about.
The third reason is the indiscriminate outsourcing and contracting being done in the Indian Railways, due to which untrained people are engaged in work related to safety and security.
The fourth reason is the rapid cancer-like spread of corruption in railways due to which quality is being neglected.
The fifth major reason is that there is such a shortage of staff in the Indian Railways that the railway administration is not able to control the quality of work done by the contractors.
Leaders of Indian Railway Employees Federation said that they believe that if the Indian Railways continue to hire untrained people to make railway engines and coaches and maintain railway lines and these workers continue to be indiscriminately exploited by the contractors, then rail accidents will become the fate of Indian Railways. The more the contracting, outsourcing, privatization etc. increase in the Indian Railways, the faster the graph of accidents will rise.
They said that the Government of India and the Railway Board should ensure the safety and security of railway passengers by recruiting employees and by immediately stopping the policies of contracting, outsourcing, privatization etc. being imposed on the Indian Railways.
Comrades Ravi Sen, NN Banerjee, Narsingh Kumar, Partho Banerjee, Kishanu Bhattacharya, Mrityunjay Kumar, Krishna Kumar, Manish Harinandan, Rajendra Pal, Umed Singh Chauhan, Tarsem Kumar, Ratan Chand, Santosh Paswan, Harkesh, Pushpendra Tripathi, Surendra Vishwakarma, Akhilesh Pandey, Sushil Kumar Singh, Pradeep Singh, Rahul Chaurasia, Alok Kumar, PK Mahapatra, Brahmanand Boi and other Central Committee members were present in the meeting.