Trains Ablaze?
Being a retired
officer of the Indian Railways, I feel thoroughly disturbed and depressed to hear continuously about the Fire Accidents in the running trains causing
fatal injuries and deaths to many of the
innocent passengers. The recent train disaster by fire accident at NELLORE,
clearly shows that the railways have not learned lessons from the previous such
fire accidents in the trains. It seems no proper corrective actions have been
taken to arrest or avoid such mishap in future. Repeated occurrences of “ Train
on fire” clearly indicate that the
reason for such accidents is due to the inaction of the railway staff responsible for the timely
maintenance of the Electrical circuits and installations while the train
arrives at stations.
I had the
privilege to serve the Indian railways for 38 years including the Konkan
railways from 1956 to 1994.During this period I have seen that the standard of
maintenance of the running trains was very good particularly for the electrical
installations as it is the critical system with specific attention to avoid
“Short circuiting”. But now the situation is different. During my journey by train after my
retirement, I have not seen any maintenance staff attending the compartment in
which I was traveling. The train is to
be attended at every important station to ensure that the electrical and water
connections etc are in order, as per the schedule fixed by the railways. Overlooking the
responsibility of the staff in their duty is also leading to such difficult
situations. The Union activities in the railways have taken strong lead and
they are overpowering the administrative orders resulting in the dereliction of
duty of the staff in maintaining the “Electrical Nerves” of the trains.
Disconnection or loose joints in the electrical line is bound to happen while
on the run due to jerks and rolling of the bogies attached to the whole train.
Friendship does
not mean that you overlook the offenses done by your colleagues or friends in
discharging their duties for public safety. Timely interference and corrective
measures must be taken to rectify the defects and timely action by the fellow
workers. Unless the responsibility is directly fixed for “inaction” the
railways cannot come out of such accidents killing innocent passengers on
board.
I entreat the
officers and Staff of the Indian railways to bestow their sincere efforts to
avoid Fire Accidents and all other disruptions in the Train Services by
enforcing the Standard of the Maintenance Schedule of the running trains by all
at all levels.
Abraham
Mangalath Philip