Bharatiya Janata Party's IT cell head Amit Malviya on Sunday hit out at the opposition for demanding the resignation of railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw in wake of the train accident in Odisha's Balasore which killed at least 290 people.
Malviya, who is also the saffron party's in-charge for West Bengal, took to Twitter to corner the Congress over the railway ministers under the UPA regime, calling it ‘nothing short of a disaster’. Defending Vaishnaw, the BJP leader listed the relief and rescue operation undertaken by the Railways for passenger safety in the past few years.
Malviya said that in 2022-23 alone, 5,227 kilometres worth of track renewal and maintenance has been carried out. A total of 37,159 km tracks were renewed in the last ten years, which is an average of 3,716 km per year. Malviya claimed that only 2,885 km of tracks were renewed in the year 2013-14, this when the UPA was in power.
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“All unmanned level crossings on broad gauge route have been eliminated. The installation of the Train Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) or Kavach on the railway routes is proceeding quickly. Construction of Road Under Bridge (RUB) and Road Over Bridge (ROB) is being done at a fast pace across the country”, Malviya added.
“The work of replacement of conventional old coaches with very safe and state-of-the-art LHB coaches is also being done at a fast pace”, he added.
Malviya's defence of the railway minister comes amid loud cries for the latter's removal by the opposition after India witnessed one of the deadliest rail accidents in decades.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said,"No accountability even after 270+ deaths? The Modi government cannot run away from taking responsibility of this horrific mishap. The PM should immediately ask the railway minister to resign".