Ref. : Press/’06/lalu36E.p65/dg
During the recent visit of Mr. Lalu Yadav to the Indian Institute
of Management (IIM), Ahmedabad, its students and the faculty were
all praise for his functioning as the Railway Minister. All the media
also jumped on the bandwagon.
But no one asked him a very important question concerning the hundreds
of people who lose their lives every year in accidents occurring at
unmanned level crossings.
In any good civil society, if profit is earned at the cost of the
safety of the people, its acceptability poses many questions.
Whenever the Railways talks of safety, it restricts itself to the
safety of its passengers, but it does not give importance to accidents
occurring at unmanned level crossings.
There are approximately 20,313 unmanned railway crossings where death
and damage is going on unabated due to the apathy of the railway administration
and the minister concerned. No compensation is paid for death of or
injury to humans or animals.
Consumer Education and Research Society (CERS), Ahmedabad, has filed
a public interest litigation (PIL) in the Supreme Court of India,
seeking direction for the manning of all unmanned level crossings
to stop the loss of hundreds of human lives.
The Railways has filed a reply in the Supreme Court stating that
due to a paucity of funds, it can man only 90 to 100 crossings a year,
which means that the citizens of India will have to wait for about
200 years for the manning of about 20,000 unmanned level crossings
and until then the damage and deaths will continue.
This is also part of the finance management of the Railway Ministry
as human life is very cheap in India. This goes on because the Railways
does not pay proper compensation for the victims of accidents at unmanned
level crossings. The compensation payment or its amount is at the
discretion of officials/politicians who may visit the site of the
accident. In some cases, it may not be paid at all.
If the Railways is made to pay proper compensation on the lines of
the formula accepted under the Motor Vehicles Act, the whole scenario
may change and the Railways will find it more economical to man all
level crossings and then earn profit by not spending on unmanned level
crossings.
According to the figures gathered by CERS, 26 persons were killed
and 72 were injured in accidents at unmanned level crossings in Gujarat
during 2000 - 2006. In Tamilnadu, 32 persons died and 69 got injured
during 2000-2003 in accidents at unmanned level crossings. We are
requesting the Supreme Court to direct the State Government to provide
the details of accidents in other States.
The Railways is conspicuously silent about the figures of compensation.
If the Railways is made to pay proper compensation for all the victims,
it may see reason to man the unmanned railway crossings.
We at CERS were wondering that Mr. Lalu Yadav was not put any question
on this aspect. Not only the IIM students and the faculty who were
playing the host, but also the media stayed away from putting any
unpleasant question to him on this issue.
The media has always played a positive role in highlighting problems
which results in changing the situation. We wish and hope that this
time also the media will take up this issue seriously.
We also appeal to the Railway Minister to take immediate steps to
stop accidents at the unmanned level crossings by abolishing them
and ensuring fair compensation for all the victims, not only the traveling
passengers, but also those who died at the crossings.
Date : 04/10/2006
Pritee Shah
Place: Ahmedabad
Editor
Insight-The Consumer Magazine
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