The Hindu: New Delhi: Monday, May 29, 2017.
Six months after the derailment of the
Indore-Rajendranagar Express near Kanpur claimed over 150 lives, investigating
agencies are yet to ascertain the cause of the accident. The Commission of
Railway Safety (CRS) hasn’t submitted its preliminary report.
“It is informed that the preliminary report of the
said accident is not available in the office,” Rajiv Kumar, Deputy Commissioner
of Railway Safety, said in response to a query under the Right to Information
(RTI) Act posed by The Hindu, on May 15. On November 20 last year, 14 coaches of the Patna-bound train derailed between Pokhrayan and Malasa
stations in Uttar Pradesh, killing at least 152 passengers and injuring 183.
According to the rules, the CRS has to submit its
preliminary report to the Chief Commissioner of Railway Safety and the Indian
Railway Board Secretary within one month of the inquiry, and it has to make the
report public as well. The CRS, under the Civil Aviation Ministry, then submits
a detailed report within six months of the inquiry to the Chief Commissioner.
Commissioner of Railway Safety (Eastern Circle) P.K. Acharya, who is inquiring
into the matter, declined to comment.
Civil Aviation Secretary R.N. Choubey didn’t
respond to an e-mail questionnaire.
The accident became a high-profile case after
Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu, suspecting sabotage, had written to Home
Minister Rajnath Singh demanding a high-level investigation.
The Home Ministry then forwarded the case to the
National Investigation Agency (NIA) to probe the sabotage angle.
“This matter is being monitored at the Prime
Minister’s Office (PMO) level. We are awaiting an inquiry report from the NIA
which had taken up the investigation soon after the accident,” said a senior
CRS official, on condition of anonymity. However, NIA officials said they were
yet to get a report from the Commission and a team of Indian Institute of
Technology (IIT) experts to finalise their investigations.
Even Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a speech
during one of his election rallies had termed the accident a cross-border
“conspiracy.”
The initial inquiry of the CRS which was held up
for submission to authorities after the National Investigation Agency started a
probe into the case had identified ‘carriage and wagon defects’ as the prime
reason for the accident.
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