Railway Accidents Reasons and Remedies- Seminar at Bangalore

ALL INDIA LOCO RUNNING STAFF ASSOCIATION
HQ ADRA Reg. No. 17903

SOUTH WESTERN RAILWAY ZONE
Web Site: www.ailrsa-swr.org E-mail: ailrsaswr@gmail.com
Visit: railwayslocopilotsblogspot.com


Seminar on
“Railway Accidents, Reasons and Remedies”
On 29th Sept 2010,
Wed. from 9 hours.

At CYCD Hall
Okhali puram, Bangalore

Inauguration
Com. Basudeb Acharia MP


Program
Welcome Address: Com. C. Sunish
Presiding: Com. SD Arnold
Inauguration: Com. Basudeb Acharia MP.
Key Note Address: Sri Prahallad Joshy MP.
Member Parliamentary Standing Committee on Railways
Presenting Paper:
Com K Parthasarathy, AGS, AILRSA South Zone.
Addressing
Com. S Prasannakumar, President, Nairuthya Railway Employees Union.(NREU)
Com. R Elangovan, Working President, Dhakshina Railway Employees Union (DREU)
Com. RV Achari, Chairman, Karnataka Kerala Travelers Forum (KKTF).
Com. John Vincent Kumar, General Secretary, AISMA.
Com. VR Prakash. Ex.AGS, AILRSA, South Zone.

Vote of thanks: Com. D Rajkumar.

Dear comrades,

In the interest of the country, its internal security, in the interest of the safety of traveling public, who use the railways every day, it is high time that the Central Government and the Prime Minister take a call at the ministry of railways to find out as to what has gone wrong with the safety of railways, particularly in view of the recent spate of train accidents The country cannot afford and the people do not tolerate the continued lack of accountability that jeopardizes the safety of both the country and the traveling public.

Between May 2009 and July 2010, the country has witnessed 16 major rail accidents in which at least 260 people lost their lives and over a thousand seriously injured. If all minor accidents are taken into account, then there have been 162 accidents since May 2009 in which 420 people died.

The recent Accident occurred at SAINTHIA railway station on 19-07-2010 at 01:55 hours by way of rear collision between Uttar Banga express and Vananchal express has claimed 63 lives. This and the other accidents leave many important questions unanswered. All of these, however, point to a massive systems failure and invariably leads to the lack of the required commitment, concentration and attention to run the Indian Railways efficiently and safely. The Indian railways today transport over 18 million passengers a day apart from large scale transportation of freight. The safety on the railways has, obviously, been neglected. Nearly ONE LAKH sanctioned posts remain vacant as the Ministry of railways failed to fill up these vacancies. Shockingly, over 20,000 of these are directly related to safety category mainly the loco pilots. Even to day the Loco Pilots are forced to work for 20 hours and beyond at a stretch, while the International standard is 8 hours a day. They are not even allowed adequate Daily and Weekly Rests. The nature of loco men work has become so intensive that, they should not be put to work for more than 6 hours a
3
day; else, it leads to severe fatigue endangering the safety of traveling public and fright.

The anti-collision device (ACD) which automatically prevents train collisions was developed by the Konkan railways when the current railway minister was the minister in an earlier spell. The Konkan railways, today, uses the ACDs effectively. But, the Ministry of railways has not found the time or the inclination to introduce the ACDs in the vast network of Railways in India.

Neglecting the maintenance of equipment, rolling stock, signal & interlocking, track & bridges and important safety measures, besides inhuman exploitation of railway men treating them as machines instead of as humans are part of the unsafe methods being followed effecting the safety.

Clearly, India cannot afford such dangerous state of affairs in our railway network, which is so crucial for the country’s existence. The Government of India has the responsibility to under take the process of rectifying the defective system prevailing in the Indian railways to prevent recurring train accidents and save the precious lives and property.

AILRSA South Western Railway is organizing a Seminar to discuss all these parameters by different walks of society on 29th Sept 2010 from 9 hours at CYCD Hall, Okhali puram, Bangalore
We request all to participate and share your views.