The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued the following statement on November 20.

THE Polit Bureau expresses its shock and sorrow at the loss of over 63 lives reported till this morning in the terrible railway accident that took place in Pukrayan near Kanpur early this morning. It conveys its deep condolences to the families of those killed and expresses sympathy with those injured.

Though railway accidents are happening with alarming regularity, the railway ministry and the government are yet to awake from their slumber and address the dire conditions of the railways and the abysmal safety standards.  Thousands of vacancies are lying unfilled in the railways leading to shortage of staff and increased working hours and burdens on the existing staff. Instead of giving priority to railway safety and upgrading safety equipment, signaling and tracks, the government seems to be more concerned with introducing bullets trains.

In this case too a formal enquiry will be ordered. But unlike earlier such enquiries, which remain unpublished, the Polit Bureau demands that report of such enquiries should be made public and the guilty brought to book.

It is very unfortunate that neither the prime minister, the railway minister nor the cabinet collectively is willing to take responsibility for such a big accident that has led to the loss of so many lives.