RAGINI SINHA
Ministry for Mishaps!

The last Railway Minister who set standards of efficiency was Madhavrao Scindia. The Railways have fallen on bad days ever since. George Fernandez who succeeded him was nicknamed Minister for Transfers because he focused his energies on issuing transfer orders for `friends’. Lalu was Minister for Catering because he focused his attention on the passengers sipping tea from desi cups made of clay. Paswan was Minister for Quotas because he ensured the right of the OBCs in getting employment. With her eyes firmly set on the Writer’s Building, Didi was Minister in Absentia where the bureaucrats and petty clerks ran the ministry.

It never occurred to these ministers since Scindia that rail safety was their primary responsibility. Instead, they seem to believe safety is the primary responsibility of each of the passengers who take the risk of travelling by the Indian Railway. Things have come to such a sorry pass that in one day two accidents are reported. And the media is more concerned about the faux pas of an inefficient minister of state than on measures to prevent such accidents recurring. With human error becoming too frequent, no one talks of reducing the speed of night trains that are most frequently in the mishap news, or banning the running of trains through terror-hit areas, especially at night. Falling safety standards are only symptomatic of the benign neglect and abdication of responsibility at the top. And the civil society is nowhere to be seen to redress the genuine problems of the people!