Title - ‘Burning trains’ invite Parliamentary panel flak

With the Parliamentary Standing Committee pulling up the Railways for the increasing incidence fires in trains, Minister Mukul Roy on Monday held a meeting of the full Railway Board to take stock of the deteriorating situation.Mr. Roy conferred with the top brass of the Railways ahead of the commencement of the monsoon session of Parliament on Thursday and the Opposition’s general accusation of the Railways being mismanaged.

Develops cold feet
Mr. Roy spent the evening preparing his defence in Parliament apparently apprehensive of facing a rather furious Opposition on a host of burning issues, including his absence from Delhi and seeking to discharge his duties from his home State of West Bengal.The Standing Committee expressed its “grave concern” over the rising number of fire accidents and directed that the Railway Board look into the problem and find a solution to avoid recurrence of such tragedies.Standing Committee chairman T.R. Baalu held a meeting of the committee on Friday in the light of the fire accident that claimed the lives of 32 passengers of the Tamil Nadu Express on July 30 and sought extensive clarifications from the Railway Board chairman and other members who attended it.

Expedite relief

Directing the Railways to urgently pay the compensation announced and provide compassionate jobs to the bereaved family members, the committee underlined the need for the Railways to pay utmost priority to passenger safety and security and ensure that tragedies, such as the one in the Tamil Nadu Express, did not recur.

The committee asked the Railways to urgently install automatic fire and smoke alarm systems and consult experts from across the globe to evolve measures to stop the spread of fire and extinguish the blaze at the point of occurrence.

The committee recommended the need to set up fire safety audit teams, use fire-retardant material in the coaches and use only copper fuses and avoid aluminium and impart fire fighting training to its staff. It also called for deployment of the Railway Protection Force in larger numbers on trains for inspection and taking action and recommended that these personnel also be trained to put down fire.

Soon after the Tamil Nadu Express tragedy, both the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the Bharatiya Janata Party accused the Railways of being mismanaged and called for the Prime Minister’s intervention to protect the lives of the passengers.