Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu offers to resign : PM asks him to wait

Mangalore Today News Network

NEW DELHI, Aug 23 2017 DH News: Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu on Wednesday offered to resign after Railway Board chairman Ashok Mittal put his paper following two major railway accidents in last four days.

Prabhu met the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and offered to quit. However the Prime Minister asked him to wait.

“I met the Hon’ble Prime Minister @narendramodi taking full moral responsibility. Hon’ble PM has asked me to wait”, Prabhu tweeted.

“I am extremely pained by the unfortunate accidents, injuries to the passengers and the loss of precious lives. It has caused me deep anguish. New India envisioned by PM deserves a railway which is efficient and modern. I promise that is the path, on which railway is progressing now”, he tweeted.

“Under the leadership of PM, tried 2 overcome decades of neglect through systemic reforms in all areas leading 2 unprecedented investment & milestones. In less than three years as Minister, I have devoted my blood and sweat for the betterment of the Railways”, the Minister tweeted.

Prabhu came under attack from the opposition parties over two major railway accidents in the past four days.

Railway Board chairman:
Earlier in the day Railway Board Ashok Mittal submitted his resignation to Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu, but it is not clear whether Prabhu accepted it or not.

Mittal was supposed to retire in July 2016 but got an extension of two years till 2018.

Two major accidents :
Two major railway accidents happened in the last four days with the latest one was Kaifyat Express derailment at Auriya in Uttar Pradesh on Wednesday early morning. As many as 74 passengers were injured as nine bogies of the train derailed. According to railway officials train derailed after dashing against a dumper carrying construction material for railway work, officials here said.

The train travelling from Azamgarh to Delhi collided with the dumper at around 2:50 am between Pata and Achhalda railway stations, a spokesperson for the North Central Railway (NCR) said.This is the second train accident in Uttar Pradesh in five days. On Saturday, Utkal Express derailed in Khatauli near Muzaffarnagar leaving over 22 dead and 156 others injured.

On August 19, over 20 passengers died and 97 were injured after 14 coaches of the Utkal Express derailed near Muzaffarnagar in western Uttar Pradesh. The Railways are probing whether the accident happened due to ongoing work on the railway line.

Taking stern action against the negligence, Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu sent three top officials- Member (Engineer) in the Railway Board, Aditya Kumar Mittal, Northern Railway General Manager R K Kulshrestha and Divisional Railway Manager (Delhi) R N Singh- on leave.

Besides four other officials have been suspended and one officer has been transferred.

In the last five years, nearly 53 per cent of the 586 train accidents were due to derailments. The worst of them happened in November 2016 when 150 passengers died after the Indore-Patna Express derailed.