In brief

Claiming that neither Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee nor the Railway Board had discharged their responsibilities,he demanded that the minister should resign owning moral responsibility for the accident. Trinamool Congress members strongly protested this and alleged that the House was being used for political purposes to criticise the Railway Minister. Leader of the Opposition,Partha Chatterjee alleged that the CPM was bent on politicising the accident in which many people had lost their lives. Subsequently,both the Trinamool and Congress MLAs walked out from the House.

‘Mamata’s CM dreams proving costly for people’
New Delhi: The main opposition BJP on Tuesday expressed “shock” at the “increasing operational inefficiency of Railways” under the UPA government. “Gruesome accidents with a heavy toll of innocent human lives have become a regular feature of Indian Railways,” said party spokesperson Rajiv Pratap Ruddy. Taking a dig at Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee,the BJP said her interest in becoming Chief Minister of West Bengal is “proving costly” for the people. “It is difficult to assess how many people will lose their lives in campaign to become Chief Minister… She does not hold administrative or review meetings. Though she is not responsible for running trains,she needs to control its management,” Rudy added.

‘Uttarbanga driver violated red signal’
Sainthia: The driver of Uttarbanga Express,who was among the victims of Monday’s train collision,was alerted by the station master that a train was already there on the tracks,but he violated the red signal,said Rehmat Ali,the signal in-charge of Sainthia station where the deadly accident took place killing 63 people and leaving 92 others injured.

“I am sure that the signal was red. But the driver violated the red signal and entered the platform. Neither the driver nor the guard contacted me saying that brake was not working,” he said.

He said the station master alerted the driver of the Uttarbanga Express over walkie talkie and asked him to stop the train as the signal was red and there was already a train on the platform.

“But he got no response and within 30 seconds,the two trains collided,” he added.