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New Delhi: Facing political pressure over rail accidents, Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishna on Wednesday said the national transporter should not be the target of political blame as it is the lifeline of the country. Vaishna said there are some disturbing trends in some accidents and the railway ministry is conducting a detailed investigation into each accident.
He was responding to questions about train derailments. “There are some disturbing trends emerging in some of the incidents that should be taken seriously,” Vashner said.
“Railways and defence are organisations that should be above politics. I don’t think Railways should be the subject of political finger-pointing,” the minister said while interacting with reporters after the Cabinet meeting.
Vaishno said that railways are the lifeline of the country and if anything negative happens, all efforts should be made to ensure efficient operation of trains.
Replying to another question, the minister said the railways have added 5,300 km of railway lines to the existing railway network in the last one year.
“Ten years ago, the average speed of railway construction was 4 km per day. Today, the speed has reached 14.5 km per day,” Vaishna said, adding that all sanctioned railway projects will be completed in the next five years.
Regarding railway recruitment, the minister said the government has prepared a recruitment calendar to fill up the vacancies in the national transporter.
“All four quarters are linked to specific categories of employment. The first quarter (January-March) is dedicated to recruiting train drivers, the second quarter for technicians and junior engineers, the third quarter for non-technical staff and the fourth quarter for officers of the first grade,” he said.
Vashna said the annual employment plan has been prepared and 45,000 vacancies have been posted in the current recruitment cycle.
The minister said that in the last round of recruitment, the railways had placed 1.54 lakh people in employment.
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