New Delhi: More than 53,000 safety staff positions remain vacant in the Indian Railways, including 3,638 vacancies in the signal and telecommunication department, Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw informed the Lok Sabha Wednesday.
The figures come in the backdrop of the triple train accident in Odisha’s Balasore on 2 June which claimed 291 lives. The Commission of Railway Safety (CRS) had in its probe concluded that the collision was caused due to multiple lapses on the part of the signal and telecommunication department, pinning responsibility for the incident on said department.
Vaishnaw’s comments in Parliament were in response to questions raised by BSP MP Ritesh Pandey about vacancies in the safety staff positions. The minister told the Lower House that there are a total of 53,178 vacancies for safety staff positions, of which nearly half (28,724) fall under the traffic and transportation (operating) department.
This department is responsible for planning long-term and short-term transportation services, along with managing day-to-day running of trains, including their time table, and ensuring proper maintenance and availability of rolling stock (locomotives) to meet demand and facilitate conditions for safe operations.
Further, the second highest number of vacancies in safety staff positions was observed under the electrical department, with the figure standing at 17,129. The remaining vacancies were observed in the civil engineering department (2,266) and the mechanical department (1,421).
In its probe report on the Balasore train tragedy, the CRS had highlighted that the Howrah–Chennai Coromandel Express collided with the rear-end of a goods train, resulting in the derailment of coaches which then collided with two coaches of the Bengaluru-Howrah Superfast Express.
According to the CRS report, the rear-end collision was caused due to wrong signalling to the Coromandel Express, which arose out of lapses due to past alteration of the signalling circuit and signalling work related to replacement of an electric lifting barrier for a level crossing gate.
On the BSP MP’s questions about steps taken to address the “severe shortage” of safety personnel, Vaishnaw said a total of 1,36,773 candidates have been enrolled against various Group ‘C’ posts (including level-1) between 1 April 2022 and 30 June 30 2023.
He added that this includes “1,11,728 [provisional] safety category posts”.
Earlier this week, the Union railway minister had informed Parliament that more than 2.50 lakh posts remain vacant in the Indian Railways, of which 2.48 lakh fell in the Group ‘C’ (non-gazetted) category — which consists of station masters, technicians and junior engineers, among others.
On Wednesday, the parliamentary standing committee on railways asked the Ministry of Railways to ensure the safety of passengers by implementing the indigenously-designed train collision avoidance system, Kavach, in all trains and tracks at the earliest.
The committee, chaired by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Radha Mohan Singh, also recommended “arranging funds” from the Rashtriya Rail Sanraksha Kosh (RRSK), which was set up to strengthen railway safety measures to prevent accidents, to be used only for safety-related works.
Further, the committee pulled up the Ministry of Railways for a “noticeable gap in funding to and expenditure from the RRSK” year after year.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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