Railways should take the blame: Dinesh Trivedi

Former Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi slammed the Railways for the Amritsar train tragedy on Friday in which over 50 people were feraed killed, saying that it should take the blame and try to fix its system.

"Take the blame so that they (faults) can be rectified. Even if it requires suspending of the rail services, do so. The fact is, we all collectively have used railways for our political end," Trivedi told a tv channel.

"We have butchered the people and there is no punishment good enough for this heinous crime... I will not even call it negligence, it was a criminal act on the part of the system. We need to learn the lesson and fix that," he said.

Criticising the functioning of the Railways, he said that the entire system exists just to "please the minister" and that several reports on the Railways' structural reforms are "gathering dust".

In a horrific incident, at least 30 people watching a burning Ravan effigy while standing on railway tracks were crushed by a speeding train in Punjab earlier in the evening.

A large number of people were watching a huge Ravan effigy in flames while standing on the tracks at a railway crossing at Joda Phatak when the train on way from Pathankot to Amritsar mowed them down, triggering anger and outrage.

-- IANS

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