Govt. will improve safety measures: PM

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, DEC. 3. While expressing grief over the death of 44 people in the rail accident in Punjab, the Prime Minister, Mr. A.B. Vajpayee, today assured the people that the Government would improve safety systems in the Railways without any further delay.

Noting that the accident came in the wake of similar ones in recent years, the Prime Minister, in a statement, said, ``It has once again highlighted the urgent need to improve the safety systems in Indian Railways. I assure my countrymen that the Government will deal with this issue with utmost seriousness and without any further delay.''

Sonia expresses shock

Expressing shock, the Congress president, Ms. Sonia Gandhi, said accidents of such a nature and magnitude had been on the rise. ``All efforts and necessary steps must be taken to ensure the safety and security of the travelling public,'' she said in a statement here today.

The CPI(M), demanding that the Railway Ministry must come out with full facts about why repeated safety recommendations have been ignored, chided the Railway Minister, Ms. Mamata Banerjee, for neglecting her ministerial duties. ``Ms. Banerjee does not have time for attending to the elementary duties as Railway Minister as she is constantly busy in instigating violence against the Left Front Government of West Bengal,'' the CPI(M) politburo said in a statement today.

Expressing its deep shock over the railway accident, the party said in no other country ``will such a shameless behaviour by the Railway Minister and the Railway authorities be tolerated.'' The CPI(M) politburo demanded action against the officials found responsible for the mishap near Sarai Banjara in Punjab.

However, it stopped short of demanding the Railway Minister's resignation. The party said the enquiry committee's recommendations after the Khanna accident two years ago still remained unimplemented and there had been 253 railway accidents this year, pointing to the enormity of the negligence and callousness of the Railway Ministry.

``Ms. Banerjee, otherwise known for her promptness in tendering resignation for political one-upmanship, never owns up responsibility when it comes to the matter of her negligence in discharging the ministerial duty. She must own up responsibility and immediately resign from her post,'' Mr. Ranjit Abhigyan, a Central Secretariat member of the CPI(M-L), said in a statement.

Our Chennai Special Correspondent writes:

Expressing ``shock and grief'', the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, Mr. M. Karunanidhi, said the swift rescue operations carried out by the villagers showed that humanitarian spirit continued to prevail. In a statement here, Mr. Karunanidhi also conveyed his condolences to the families of the victims.

Rescue work ends

PTI reports:

Rescue workers today completed their operations at the site. ``All bogies and wagons under which bodies were believed to be buried have been shifted and inspected and there is no possibility of finding any more body,'' a spokesman of the Ambala railway division said.

Rescuers, assisted by cranes and blowtorches, cut open the wreckage of the two trains, looking for dead bodies and survivors. They were now extricating wheels, trolley frames and rails, which were stuck in the earth.

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