Railway cannot avoid responsibility

Although the railway top boss would like us to believe that his ministry is in no way responsible for casualties occurring at unauthorised level crossings, we beg to differ. We do so because although these crossings were built without the railway's permission, it falls on the ministry to take strong action against those flouting the rules. The issue was covered by us in an earlier editorial a few days ago and there it was pointed out that one of the reasons why government bodies did not take prior consent from railway is because it entails a large fee. Now, either the ministry should rethink its fee structure or enforce its mandate in removing the illegal crossings set up by various governmental organisations. There really is no middle ground here.

At the recently held press conference at Rail Bhaban, the minister further stated that notices would be served to government organisations that built these illegal crossings. But, why serve notices? Why not act against unauthorised activity and demolish these illegitimate crossings? The data speaks for itself: 122 people killed and 296 wounded in 103 rail-related incidents as of July 15, 2019. These were preventable deaths and merely transferring railway officials or suspending them from active duty will not solve the problem.

Rather, proactive measures like preventing the building of these illegal level crossings or demolishing them would serve public interest. Furthermore, the ministry should ask for additional budgetary allocations to properly man the ones that are legal so that people do not have to fall victim to deadly collisions with locomotive engines at these crossings.