Anger at Modi government for ‘ignoring crucial warning’ months before crash

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge wrote a letter to prime minister Narendra Modi, asking him why a “crucial warning” about the potential for signal failure was ignored by railway officials.

In his scathing letter, the chief of the oldest Indian political party, said Odisha train accident was an “eye-opener”.

“All the empty safety claims of the railway minister have now been exposed. There is serious concern among the common passengers about this deterioration in safety. Therefore, it is incumbent upon the government to ascertain and bring to light the real reasons that caused this grave accident,” he said.

In one of his 11-questions that he posed to Mr Modi, he referred to a letter written by a top official in the Karnataka-based South Western Railway operator who had flagged his concerns about the danger of “signal failure”, which was identified as the root cause of an accident in February as well.

“Why and how could the Ministry of Railways ignore this crucial warning?” he asked.

The King has sent a message of condolence to the president of India after the country’s deadliest rail disaster in decades.

Nearly 300 people died and more than 1,000 were injured when three trains collided on Friday in the state of Odisha.

Charles, who travelled to Romania last week for a private break, said he and the Queen were “most profoundly shocked and saddened” by the “dreadful accident” outside Balasore.

The King added: “I would like to express our deepest possible condolences to the families of all those who have so tragically lost their lives.”

He recalled visiting Odisha as Prince of Wales, saying: “I do hope you know what a special place India and the people of India have in our hearts.

“I have particularly fond memories of visiting Odisha in 1980 and meeting some of its people on that occasion.”

The King, who signed his message Charles R, told President Droupadi Murmu: “I pray, therefore, that you may be able to convey our most heartfelt prayers and sympathy to all those who have been affected by this appalling tragedy, together with our special thoughts for the people of Odisha.”

Aerial footage captured above the scene of the deadly India train crash shows the extent of the incident that has killed almost 300 people.

Mangled and derailed train carriages are seen strewn across the ground as rescue workers continue to search the site.

Nearly 300 people have died and hundreds more were left injured after two passenger trains crashed into each other in India’s eastern state of Odisha around 7pm on 2 June.

Footage from the scene shows the damaged carriages derailed and laying on their sides both near the tracks and metres away.

One of the first responders at the site of the Odisha train crash said he rushed outside after hearing a “thunderous sound” and was left in shock by what he saw next.

Onkar Nath Panda, who lives just 50 metres away from the train tracks where the crash took place, tells The Independent that he saw a huge cloud of smoke, people screaming and everything had turned red before the police and officials arrived.

“It was like an earthquake,” he says. “The only thing dividing the train track from this house is a pond.

“We rushed out. And what we saw was smoke. Everything was covered in smoke. We heard people screaming.”

He said police only arrived at the scene more than an hour later, and in the meantime he and other locals jumped into action.

“I went back and took out sheets and an electrical cutter from my workshop to break open train doors. But the electricity had snapped by then.

“We tried calling for help but the lines were not working. We pulled out bodies as well as injured while the women of the house brought out buckets after buckets of water.”

“Everything was red. The police and officers arrived an hour later.”

Mr Panda said he hasn’t slept in days and was unable to eat after witnessing such horrific scenes.

More than three days after the deadliest train crash in India this century, the initial shock and sorrow have been overtaken by outrage and frustration as family members lined up in hospital morgues to identify and collect the bodies of their loved ones.

Family members lined up outside Bhubaneswar’s AIIMS hospital where two large screens cycled through photos of the victims.

Each body had a number assigned to it, and relatives stood near the screen and watched as the photos changed, looking out for details like clothing for clues.

The distraught family members, some of whom spent days on desperate journeys from neighbouring cities and states, arrived to claim the bodies in a process that has stretched into a third day due to the nature of the injuries.

Questions are being raised over potential negligence following the emergence of a letter to the government by a top official in the Karnataka-based South Western Railway operator. The letter had flagged concerns about the danger of “signal failure”, which was identified as the root cause of an accident in February as well.

The president of the opposition Congress party, Mallikarjun Kharge, asked: “Why and how could the Ministry of Railways ignore this crucial warning?”

A video going viral on social media showed people working on the crash site dumping bodies in a truck during the late night rescue and recovery operation.

“Is this Modi’s New India? Where in the world this barbarity can happen? Dead bodies of train accident victims in Odisha, India, are being loaded on a tractor trolley when Modi has two big Boeings for his travels!” Ashok Swain, a Sweden-based professor and frequent critic of the Indian government, said while sharing the graphic video.

Alaudin, who goes by one name, travelled almost 200km (124.3 miles) Saturday from West Bengal state to the crash site, to look for his brother, who was on board one of the trains.

He learned about the crash from television. When he tried to call his brother’s mobile phone to check on him, no one answered, he told Associated Press.

Worried, he and his sister-in-law rushed to the site of the crash afterwards and spent all of Saturday looking for him in various hospitals, hoping he would be alive.

But his brother’s whereabouts remained unknown as the death toll continued to rise.

Distraught, they finally made their way to the mortuary, where Alaudin’s brother body was wrapped in a black plastic bag and placed on top of blocks of melting ice.

“I lost my brother, she lost her husband,” Alaudin said, pointing to his sister-in-law. “And his two boys have lost a father.”

His brother was 36 years old, Alaudin said.

Passengers aboard a train in eastern India today watched from their windows as they passed the site of one of the country’s deadliest rail crashes in decades.

The derailment that killed 275 people and injured nearly 1,200 more was caused by an error in the electronic signalling system that led a train to wrongly change tracks and crash into a freight train, officials said Sunday.

Authorities worked to clear the mangled wreckage of the two passenger trains that derailed Friday night in Balasore district in Odisha state.

Gura Pallay was watching another train pass by the one he was sitting in when he heard sudden, loud screeching. Before he could make sense of what was happening, he was thrown out of the train.

Mr Pallay, 24, landed next to the tracks along with metal wreckage of the train he’d been riding in, and instantly lost consciousness. The first thing he saw when he opened his eyes was the twisted remains of three trains on the tracks.

His train had derailed after colliding with a stopped freight train. Another passenger train, the one he had seen pass by moments earlier, had hit the derailed carriages.

“I saw it with my own eyes, but I still can’t describe what I saw. I am haunted by it,” he told the Associated Press yesterday at a hospital, where he lay on a stretcher with a broken leg and dark wounds on his face and arms.

Mr Pallay is a labourer, like most of the people onboard the two passenger trains that crashed Friday in the eastern Odisha state, killing 275 people and injuring hundreds.

He was traveling to Chennai city in southern India to take up a job in a paper mill factory when the Coromandel Express crashed with a goods freight train, knocking it off track, and was then hit by a second train coming from the opposite direction on a parallel track.

“I never imagined something like this could happen, but I guess it was our fate,” he said.

Indian Railways, the operator of the country’s nationalised rail network, has initiated a comprehensive week-long safety campaign across the country to focus on the signalling system, particularly the “double locking” signalling mechanism at stations.

The drive aims to ensure the proper functioning of the signalling apparatus and the effective generation of SMS alerts whenever the signalling relay rooms are accessed and secured.

At least 10 express rails have crossed the Bahanagar Bazar station where the deadly train accident occurred since the completion of the restoration.

However, the station remains closed for locals.

There is no clarity on when tickets would be issued for the local rails from the station.