THE 9 AM metro had had a late start. It was a working day. The compartments were packed to capacity—standing room only and that too getting filled up quite soon. There was one big, juddering crash. There was a flash of intense blue flame. The train jumped the tracks. It would not stay stuck on the electrified third rail. Otherwise all the passengers, 200-odd, and the crew, would all of them been electrocuted.
The railway minister was dismissive. This was a minor incident. So many accidents happen now-a-days. So many people die. They pop off every day, now, don’t they? Dry words.... Careless.... Disdainful of lives.... This was typical of her.
What of the 50-odd left injured in the metro near-disaster? What of the hundred-odd suffering from acute shock syndrome. What indeed of the substance called safety? Is the ill-will of running away with the poll results come 2011 that much important? Must she go on with her metro extension psychosis regardless of everything? Would she and her outfit dare believe that deceiving the people and playing with their lives would fetch political dividends?
The rescue efforts on that day saved the lives of the panic-struck passengers and the efforts were the sole credit to the Disaster Management Team of the Bengal Left Front government. They prised open the emergency doors. They virtually carried most of the passengers away from the train, fearing a buckling of the compartments any time. They provided the initial medical attention.
This was on October 21. The next day, a morning metro jangled to a halt. The motor had gone awry. The Railway minister was dismissive, so what is new?
TRINAMULI CHIEF’S BLUFF CALLED
BIMAN Basu, CPI(M) Bengal state secretary called the bluff of Trinamuli chief Mamata Banarjee’s blustering if somewhat nostalgic demand that Article 356 be imposed on Bengal because of ‘deterioration of the law-and-order situation.’ She had also told a section of the fawning media that the CPI(M) workers were engaged in wearing ‘khaki uniforms’ and terrorising, killing the people.
Biman Basu started by recalling to the mind of the media persons present during a briefing at the Muzaffar Ahmad Bhavan in Kolkata during the afternoon of October 24 that the Trinamuli chief had called for such an imposition Article 356 time after time. Nothing had happened so far. Nothing will happen now, and so, what is new?
Biman Basu directly noted that the Trinamuli chief and her gang of rag-tag villains whom she lets loose on the CPI (M) in particular but on the democratic masses in general, were responsible for the acts of anarchy committed on the people of the state.
It was a well-known fact, the senior CPI (M) leader pointed out, that in the recent past there were plenty of instances where the so-called ‘Maoists,’ along with their Trinamul touts were caught on camera wearing jungle fatigues of olive-green-and-brown-patches. Who are wearing the uniform and killing CPI (M) workers and the common poor folk then, was Biman Basu’s rhetorical askance.
Squarely questioning the manner in which the Indian Railways was presently, and for sometime now, run, Biman Basu noted that a slack management and in this instance, the slackness started from the level of the concerned minister herself, plus a lack of maintenance of even the most basic kind have caused accidents to happen, people to get killed, and the reputation of the Indian Railways as one of the finest and the safest networks in south Asia and beyond to be ruined and besmirched. He criticised the unwillingness to build up a viable infrastructural network for the Railways.
The metro rail, Biman Basu continued, needed especial care of different nature. Since the network lies and runs deep underground, maintenance was always a quickening priority vis-a-vis the above-ground network. The frequency of maintenance is crucial here. This was ignored in the search for greater glory of rightist political sort.
Putting on daubs of garish paint, and renaming metro stations while stretching the unmanaged sources to the limit and beyond, and then politically conspiring to blame the CPI (M) for the ills plaguing the Indian Railways was condemnable beyond contempt -- and the CPI (M) and the Bengal Left Front would continue to reach out to the people to tell them the tragic story of the unravelling of the Railways under the present tenure of Trinamuli chief's dispensation.
Source: www.pd.cpim.org
Vol. XXXIV, No. 44, October 31, 2010
Sunday, October 31, 2010
METRO RAIL DISASTER NARROWLY AVERTED - B Prasant
Saturday, October 30, 2010
Friday, October 29, 2010
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Monday, October 25, 2010
Saturday, October 23, 2010
Friday, October 22, 2010
WORLD ECONOMY: THE ELUSIVE RECOVERY - C P Chandrasekhar
THE optimism that overcame global governments when growth figures for the last quarter of 2009 were released is fast receding. Growth has slowed sharply in the subsequent two quarters and unemployment rates are in danger of rising further. In the United States for example, growth in the last quarter of 2009 which was placed at 5 per cent relative to the corresponding quarter of 2008, is estimated to have fallen to 3.7 and 1.6 per cent in the subsequent two quarters. Unfortunately, this occurs at a time when the resolve to address the crisis has considerably weakened.
Not surprisingly, on September 9, the OECD which had, like many other organisations, been upbeat about the recovery of the world economy from the Great Recession, issued an interim assessment that reflected a new scepticism. “The world economic recovery may be slowing faster than previously anticipated”, it argued, with growth in the Group of Seven countries in the second half of 2010 projected at around 1½ per cent on an annualised basis compared with its earlier estimate of around 2½ per cent in the Economic Outlook released in May.
This was of significance because 2009, which was otherwise a depressing year, ended on an optimistic note. Considering the year as a whole, growth was negative in the leading economies and highly so in Japan, Germany and the UK. The recession that had set in at the end of 2007 had revealed itself in 2008 and intensified in 2009. What was most disconcerting was the sharp increase in unemployment rates in the US (from 5.8 per cent in 2008 to 9.3 per cent in 2009) and the high levels at which they stood in Germany (7.5 per cent), France (9.4 per cent) and the UK (7.5 per cent).
Not surprisingly, on September 9, the OECD which had, like many other organisations, been upbeat about the recovery of the world economy from the Great Recession, issued an interim assessment that reflected a new scepticism. “The world economic recovery may be slowing faster than previously anticipated”, it argued, with growth in the Group of Seven countries in the second half of 2010 projected at around 1½ per cent on an annualised basis compared with its earlier estimate of around 2½ per cent in the Economic Outlook released in May.
This was of significance because 2009, which was otherwise a depressing year, ended on an optimistic note. Considering the year as a whole, growth was negative in the leading economies and highly so in Japan, Germany and the UK. The recession that had set in at the end of 2007 had revealed itself in 2008 and intensified in 2009. What was most disconcerting was the sharp increase in unemployment rates in the US (from 5.8 per cent in 2008 to 9.3 per cent in 2009) and the high levels at which they stood in Germany (7.5 per cent), France (9.4 per cent) and the UK (7.5 per cent).
However, as noted above, by the time full year’s figures for 2009 were available there was cause for optimism. The quarter-on-quarter annual growth rates seemed to suggest that the recession was already bottoming out in the third quarter of 2009 and had touched respectable levels in the last quarter, especially in the United States, Japan and France. The world it appeared was well on the way to recovery even though the high unemployment levels were still a cause for concern.
DASHED OPTIMISM
Unfortunately, that optimism has been dashed by performance during the next two quarters, when growth has decelerated quite sharply in the US and Japan, though it has gathered momentum in Germany and improved elsewhere in Europe. The difficulty is that Germany’s success as an exporter is often at the expense of other countries in the eurozone. Therefore, it is this turn over the first two quarters of 2010 that has affected the OECD’s projections and precipitated a sense of gloom.
It must be noted that the IMF has been more optimistic in its World Economic Outlook released in time for the annual meetings of the World Bank and the IMF held in October. It projects world output to grow at 4.8 per cent during 2010, as compared with a contraction of 0.6 per cent in 2009. This, of course, is largely because of the optimism generated by the sharp recovery in the emerging markets of Asia and Latin America. In fact, the IMF has been forced to recognise the considerable unevenness in growth performance. It notes that: “The United States and Japan experienced a noticeable slowdown during the second quarter of 2010, while growth accelerated in Europe and stayed strong in emerging and developing economies.” And again that: “Household spending is doing well in emerging market economies, but in advanced economies, low consumer confidence, high unemployment, stagnant incomes, and reduced household wealth are holding consumption down.”
The recognition of these differences is partly visible in the optimistic growth projections. The emerging and developing economies are expected to grow by 7.1 per cent in 2010, as compared with 2.5 per cent in 2009. On the other hand, the advanced economies are expected to grow by 2.7 per cent in 2010, as opposed to the contraction of 3.2 per cent they experienced in 2009. This modest recovery too is to an extent due to the significant turnaround in the newly industrialised Asian economies (included by the IMF among the advanced) from -0.9 per cent in 2009 to 7.8 per cent in 2010. In sum, the core of capitalism as we know it today is even in the optimistic projections of the IMF expected to grow rather slowly this year.
The fundamental problems remain the same. Household balance sheets are under strain because of the legacy of debt accumulated during the boom. Unemployment is curtailing current incomes. And credit is either unavailable to or being avoided by those who need to expand consumption because of a collapse of net worth. In the event, private consumption expenditure in much of the developed world, which stagnated in real terms in 2008 and declined significantly in 2009, is unlikely to recover substantially in 2010. On the other hand, governments across the developed world, overcome by conservative fears of excess public debt, are holding back on public expenditure or resorting to severe austerity measures that are sparking public dissent as in parts of Europe. Aggregate spending therefore is low. Not surprisingly, output growth remains sluggish.
In sum, the fear that an early retreat from the stimulus would deliver a second dip is still with us, at least in the developed world. Even in the US, where talk of a stimulus is repeatedly heard, the requisite action to spur the economy is not forthcoming. The situation in the US is most appropriate for recovery led by fiscal expansion. The unemployment problem persists and may be worsening as indicated by the fact that overall jobs fell by 95,000 in September. This was despite the fact that the private sector created 64,000 jobs that month and indicates that government spending cuts are substantially to blame. Unutilised capacity is rampant. And inflation is at a low that worries even Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke. Consumer prices in the US rose by just 1.1 per cent over the year ending September 2010 and by just 0.1 per cent between August and September. Bernanke has declared that “inflation is running at rates that are too low” and called for an inflation target of “two per cent or a bit below”.
WRONG BELIEF
This would imply that a major stimulus is in order. But when talk of the stimulus arises it takes the form only of a monetary stimulus or “quantitative easing”. This involves large doses or several billions of dollars of asset purchases by the Federal Reserve aimed at injecting liquidity into the economy and driving down interest rates. The problem with this approach is the belief that the desire or inducement to spend or invest exists and the problem is the lack of credit to fuel such spending. That is a belief that has been proved wrong many times over in recent history. Yet there are myriad ways in which liquidity is sought to be injected into the system. For example, the Treasury department has announced a $1.5billion programme aimed at small businesses and designed to trigger $15billion in additional private lending.
What the quantitative easing does is that it lowers UN interest rates, widens the differential between interest rates in that country and elsewhere in the world and encourages, therefore, the carry trade. When additional liquidity is injected, financial investors (rather than industrial firms) borrow dollars at low interest rates, convert those dollars to currencies of countries where interest rates or financial returns are high or just higher and make an investment to benefit from the differential in returns.
The consequence of encouraging movements of this kind is that there is a surge of capital flows into emerging markets in Asia and Latin America that is strengthening their currencies and inviting intervention on their part to prevent currency appreciation that worsens their competitiveness. The fall outs are the much talked about “currency wars” that are mistakenly presented as the cause of rather than, partly, the result of uneven development. It is not that the faster growth of these emerging economies is the result of undervalued currencies. To the extent that in some cases that faster growth is the result of export success, the success is due to cost competitiveness which in substantial measure stems from the availability of cheap surplus labour in a context where capital and technology are mobile but labour is not. Best-practice technologies are combined with cheap labour in these locations for production for world markets. Overall, it is better performance resulting from cost competitiveness which delivers a trade surplus and encourages the capital inflow surge that tends to appreciate the currencies of these countries and undermine their competitiveness.
It is in this light that we must view the IMF’s optimism that comes from the fact that the emerging markets are doing well enough to lift “global growth”. That unevenness is not the basis for combined growth but for conflict that demands responses that could undermine the competitiveness of the emerging market economies. Moreover, the capital inflow surge into some of these emerging markets results in real estate and stock market bubbles that are likely to burst and therefore render such growth fragile. What is needed is a return to an effort at having a globally synchronised fiscal push with measures to distribute the benefits of that push across continents and countries. It is that option that the IMF foregoes when it emphasises the need to “stabilise and subsequently reduce high public debt” and calls for “a strengthening of private demand in advanced economies” without explaining how that is to be ensured.
Courtesy: www.pd.cpim.org
Vol. XXXIV, No. 43, October 24, 2010
DASHED OPTIMISM
Unfortunately, that optimism has been dashed by performance during the next two quarters, when growth has decelerated quite sharply in the US and Japan, though it has gathered momentum in Germany and improved elsewhere in Europe. The difficulty is that Germany’s success as an exporter is often at the expense of other countries in the eurozone. Therefore, it is this turn over the first two quarters of 2010 that has affected the OECD’s projections and precipitated a sense of gloom.
It must be noted that the IMF has been more optimistic in its World Economic Outlook released in time for the annual meetings of the World Bank and the IMF held in October. It projects world output to grow at 4.8 per cent during 2010, as compared with a contraction of 0.6 per cent in 2009. This, of course, is largely because of the optimism generated by the sharp recovery in the emerging markets of Asia and Latin America. In fact, the IMF has been forced to recognise the considerable unevenness in growth performance. It notes that: “The United States and Japan experienced a noticeable slowdown during the second quarter of 2010, while growth accelerated in Europe and stayed strong in emerging and developing economies.” And again that: “Household spending is doing well in emerging market economies, but in advanced economies, low consumer confidence, high unemployment, stagnant incomes, and reduced household wealth are holding consumption down.”
The recognition of these differences is partly visible in the optimistic growth projections. The emerging and developing economies are expected to grow by 7.1 per cent in 2010, as compared with 2.5 per cent in 2009. On the other hand, the advanced economies are expected to grow by 2.7 per cent in 2010, as opposed to the contraction of 3.2 per cent they experienced in 2009. This modest recovery too is to an extent due to the significant turnaround in the newly industrialised Asian economies (included by the IMF among the advanced) from -0.9 per cent in 2009 to 7.8 per cent in 2010. In sum, the core of capitalism as we know it today is even in the optimistic projections of the IMF expected to grow rather slowly this year.
The fundamental problems remain the same. Household balance sheets are under strain because of the legacy of debt accumulated during the boom. Unemployment is curtailing current incomes. And credit is either unavailable to or being avoided by those who need to expand consumption because of a collapse of net worth. In the event, private consumption expenditure in much of the developed world, which stagnated in real terms in 2008 and declined significantly in 2009, is unlikely to recover substantially in 2010. On the other hand, governments across the developed world, overcome by conservative fears of excess public debt, are holding back on public expenditure or resorting to severe austerity measures that are sparking public dissent as in parts of Europe. Aggregate spending therefore is low. Not surprisingly, output growth remains sluggish.
In sum, the fear that an early retreat from the stimulus would deliver a second dip is still with us, at least in the developed world. Even in the US, where talk of a stimulus is repeatedly heard, the requisite action to spur the economy is not forthcoming. The situation in the US is most appropriate for recovery led by fiscal expansion. The unemployment problem persists and may be worsening as indicated by the fact that overall jobs fell by 95,000 in September. This was despite the fact that the private sector created 64,000 jobs that month and indicates that government spending cuts are substantially to blame. Unutilised capacity is rampant. And inflation is at a low that worries even Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke. Consumer prices in the US rose by just 1.1 per cent over the year ending September 2010 and by just 0.1 per cent between August and September. Bernanke has declared that “inflation is running at rates that are too low” and called for an inflation target of “two per cent or a bit below”.
WRONG BELIEF
This would imply that a major stimulus is in order. But when talk of the stimulus arises it takes the form only of a monetary stimulus or “quantitative easing”. This involves large doses or several billions of dollars of asset purchases by the Federal Reserve aimed at injecting liquidity into the economy and driving down interest rates. The problem with this approach is the belief that the desire or inducement to spend or invest exists and the problem is the lack of credit to fuel such spending. That is a belief that has been proved wrong many times over in recent history. Yet there are myriad ways in which liquidity is sought to be injected into the system. For example, the Treasury department has announced a $1.5billion programme aimed at small businesses and designed to trigger $15billion in additional private lending.
What the quantitative easing does is that it lowers UN interest rates, widens the differential between interest rates in that country and elsewhere in the world and encourages, therefore, the carry trade. When additional liquidity is injected, financial investors (rather than industrial firms) borrow dollars at low interest rates, convert those dollars to currencies of countries where interest rates or financial returns are high or just higher and make an investment to benefit from the differential in returns.
The consequence of encouraging movements of this kind is that there is a surge of capital flows into emerging markets in Asia and Latin America that is strengthening their currencies and inviting intervention on their part to prevent currency appreciation that worsens their competitiveness. The fall outs are the much talked about “currency wars” that are mistakenly presented as the cause of rather than, partly, the result of uneven development. It is not that the faster growth of these emerging economies is the result of undervalued currencies. To the extent that in some cases that faster growth is the result of export success, the success is due to cost competitiveness which in substantial measure stems from the availability of cheap surplus labour in a context where capital and technology are mobile but labour is not. Best-practice technologies are combined with cheap labour in these locations for production for world markets. Overall, it is better performance resulting from cost competitiveness which delivers a trade surplus and encourages the capital inflow surge that tends to appreciate the currencies of these countries and undermine their competitiveness.
It is in this light that we must view the IMF’s optimism that comes from the fact that the emerging markets are doing well enough to lift “global growth”. That unevenness is not the basis for combined growth but for conflict that demands responses that could undermine the competitiveness of the emerging market economies. Moreover, the capital inflow surge into some of these emerging markets results in real estate and stock market bubbles that are likely to burst and therefore render such growth fragile. What is needed is a return to an effort at having a globally synchronised fiscal push with measures to distribute the benefits of that push across continents and countries. It is that option that the IMF foregoes when it emphasises the need to “stabilise and subsequently reduce high public debt” and calls for “a strengthening of private demand in advanced economies” without explaining how that is to be ensured.
Courtesy: www.pd.cpim.org
Vol. XXXIV, No. 43, October 24, 2010
Thursday, October 21, 2010
MAJOR TRAIN ACCIDENTS UNDER MAMATA BANERJEE
198111 February 1981 – Three trains travelling on same track collide with each other in Vaniyambadi, 199 KM from Chennai. Numerous casualties.
6 June 1981 – Bihar train disaster, India: Hundreds are killed (300-800) when a train falls into a river.
17 July 1981 – A freight train slams into the back of a Narmada Express train in Madhya Pradesh, India, near Bhanwartonk Station killing 700 people and injuring 43.
19 July 1981 – In an incident blamed on sabotage, a train traveling to Ahmedabad from New Delhi, India, derailed in Gujarat, killing 30 people and injuring 70.
1982
27 January 1982 – A freight train and an express passenger train collided head-on in heavy fog near Agra, India, killing 50 and injuring 50.
20 March 1982 – A Mangalore-to-New Delhi train slammed into a tourist bus at a level crossing in Andhra Pradesh, snapping the bus in two, killing at least 59 people on the bus and injuring 25 others.
1985
23 February 1985 – Rajnandgaon train fire, Madhya Pradesh, India: Over 50 people were killed when an express train caught fire.
1986
1987
8 July 1987 – Machieral rail disaster, 53 people killed in the derailment of a train in Andhra Pradesh.
1988
8 July 1988 – Ashtamudi Lake rail disaster, passenger train falls in the lake after derailing, 107 people drowned.
1989
18 April 1989 – Lalitpur rail disaster, near Lalitpur, Uttar Pradesh, India: 75 killed when train derails.
1990
6 June 1990: Thirty-five killed in a train accident at Gollaguda in Andhra Pradesh.
25 June 1990: Sixty killed as a goods train rams into a passenger train at Mangra in Daltongunj in Bihar.
10 October 1990: Forty killed in a fire in a train near Cherlapalli in Andhra Pradesh.
1991
Oct 31, 1991: Thirty killed as Karnataka Express derails near Makalidurga ghats in Karnataka,about 60 km from Bangalore on a rainy evening.
1992
Sept 5, 1992: Forty-one killed in a train accident near Raigarh in Madhya Pradesh.
1993
16 July 1993: Sixty killed in an accident in Darbhanga district of Bihar.
Sept 21, 1993: Seventy-one killed as Kota-Bina passenger train collides with a goods train near Chhabra in Rajasthan.
1994
3 May 1994: Thirty-five people killed as Narayanadri Express rams into a tractor in Nalgonda district of Andhra Pradesh.
26 Oct 1994: Twenty-seven killed as 8001 DN Mumbai - Hawrah mail caught fire on its S5 Sleeper class coach between Lotapahar and Chakradharpur stations (SE Railway) at 02.51 AM.
1995
14 May 1995: Fifty-two people killed as Madras-Kanyakumari Express collides with a goods train near Salem.
1 June 1995: Seventy-three killed in two accidents in West Bengal and Orissa.
20 August 1995: Firozabad rail disaster, Three hundred and fifty eight killed as Delhi-bound Purushottam Express rams into the stationary Kalindi Express near Firozabad in Uttar Pradesh.
1996
18 April 1996: Sixty killed as Gorakhpur-Gonda passenger train rams into a stationary goods train at Domingarh near Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh.
14 May 1996: Thirty-five of a marriage party killed as bus carrying them collides with the Ernakulam-Kayamkulam train at an unmanned level-crossing near Alappuzha in Kerala.
25 May 1996: Twenty-five killed as an Allahabad-bound passenger train rams into a tractor-trolley at an unmanned level crossing near Varanasi.
Dec 30, 1996: Thirty-three people killed in a bomb blast on the Brahmaputra mail between Kokrajahar and Fakiragram stations in lower Assam.
1997
8 July 1997: Thirty-three people killed in bomb blast on a passenger train at Lehra Khanna railway station in Bhatinda district in Punjab.
28 July 1997: Twelve people killed in a collision involving Karnataka Express and Himsagar Express near Faridabad on the outskirts of Delhi.
Sept 14, 1997: Eight-one killed as five bogies of the Ahmedabad-Howrah Express plunge into a river in Bilaspur district of Madhya Pradesh.
1998
4 April 1998: Eleven people killed near Fatuha station on Howrah-Delhi main line as Howrah-Danapur Express derails between Fatuha and Bankaghat stations.
24 April 1998: Twenty-four killed and 32 injured at Parali Vaijanath railway station in Maharashtra as 15 wagons of a goods train Ram into the Manmad-Kachiguda Express.
Aug 13, 1998: Nineteen killed and 27 injured as a bus rams into the Chennai-Madurai Express train at an unmanned level-crossing on the new Karur-Salem bypass road on the outskirts of Karur town.
Sept 24, 1998: Twenty people, including 14 school children, killed and 33 injured when a train engine rams into a bus at an unmanned level-crossing near Bottalaapalem village in Andhra Pradesh.
Nov 26, 1998: Khanna rail disaster, over 212 people die as Jammu Tawi-Sealdah Express rams into three derailed bogies of Amritsar-bound Frontier Golden Temple Mail at Khanna.
1999
16 July 1999: Seventeen killed and over 200 injured as the new Delhi-bound Grand Trunk Express from Chennai collides with derailed wagons of a goods train near Mathura.
Aug 2, 1999: 268 killed and 359 injured in a collision involving Awadh-Assam Express and Brahmaputra Mail at Gaisal in North Frontier Railway's Katihar division.
2002
On 9 September 2002, Howrah-New Delhi Rajdhani Express derailed at 2240 hrs near Rafiganj station between Gaya and Dehri-on-Sone stations, resulting in over 150 dead
2003
On 15 May 2003, fire breaks out in Golden Temple Mail at 3.55 hrs between Ludhiana and Ladhowal stations, resulting in 36 deaths and 15 injuries
On 22 June 2003, the train engine and first four coaches of Karwar-Mumbai central Holiday Special derailed and capsized at about 21.15 hrs.52 persons lost their lives and 26 others were injured.
On 2 July 2003, Golconda Express derailed at Warangal station at 10.25 hrs. 21 persons were dead and 24 injured.[2]
2004
16 June 2004 matsyagandha express mangalore to mumbai derails when stiking with a huge boulder on konkan railway line. 14 dead
2005
29 October 2005 Repalle secunderabad delta passenger derailed at valigonda in nalgonda district of Andhra pradesh.Some of the rakes fell in the musi River killing at least 80 persons. This was due to severe rain.
2006
11 July 2006 – A series of bomb attacks strikes commuter trains in Mumbai, India, killing at least 200.[3]
18 August 2006 two carriages catch fire on the Chennai-Hyderabad Express near Secundrabad station
9 November 2006 – 40 die and 15 injured in a West Bengal rail accident.[citation needed]
20 November 2006 – A bomb explodes on a train near Belacoba station in West Bengal, India, killing 7 and injuring 53. See 2006 West Bengal train disaster.[4]
1 December 2006 – Bihar, Bhágalpur in the Ganges a portion of the 150-year-old 'Ulta Pul' bridge being dismantled collapsed over a passing train of India's Eastern Railways, killing 35 and injuring 17.[5][6]
2009
13 February 2009 – Twelve carriages of the Coromandel Express derails soon after the train left Jajpur Road station near the city of Jajpur in the state of Orissa.[7] Interestingly, the accident occurred on the day of Railway Budget presentation when Railway Minister Mr Lalu Prasad Yadav boasted about increased safety measures at Indian Railways.
MAJOR TRAIN ACCIDENTS UNDER THE REGIME OF MAMATA BANERJEE
21 October 2009 – 21 people died and several others injured when locomotive of Goa Express rammed the rearmost carriage of stationary Mewar Express near Mathura, Uttar Pradesh. Initially the railways officials held driver responsible for overlooking the signal but in the investigation it was proved that the signal was given green even though Mewar express was held up ahead due to chain pulling by passenger. Railways.[8]
11 November 2009: 10 coaches of 6210 Mysore-Ajmer express derails 80 km before Pune; No casualties reported.
2010
2 January 2010 – Three accidents involving five trains took place in Uttar Pradesh due to dense fog conditions.[9][10][11][12]
The first accident took place near the town of Etawah, about 170 miles (270 kilometers) southwest of Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh state, when the Lichchavi Express entering the station rammed into the stationery Magadh Express train stopped there. Ten people, including the driver of one of the trains, were injured.
In a second similar Gorakhdham Express and Prayagraj Express collided near the Panki railway station in Kanpur, about 60 miles (100 kilometers) southwest of Lucknow, and left five people dead and about 40 others injured.
Another accident has been reported from Pratapgarh, 61 km from Allahabad. The Sarayu Express broke into a tractor trolley at an unmanned railway crossing leading to the accident. Though nobody is injured following the incident, the engine of the train is severely damaged.
3 January 2010 – All seven coaches of the Arunachal Pradesh Express, running between Murkongselek and Rangiya, derailed at a place between Helem and Nij Bogaon in Assam in the early hours, but none of the passengers were hurt.[13]
16 January 2010 – Three people died and around a dozen were injured when two express trains(The Kalindi Express and Shram Shakti Express) collided in thick fog in India's northern state of Uttar Pradesh on Saturday, 16 January 2010. The accident happened near Tundla, 25 kilometres from Agra, when the driver of one of the trains apparently did not react to a signal, slamming his train into another on the same track.[14][15][16][17]
17 January 2010 – Two persons were killed and four others injured when their car was hit by a train at an unmanned crossing on Sunday afternoon in Barabanki district. The accident happened when the Lucknow-Sultanpur Harihar Nath Express hit the car at Barha railway crossing under Haidergarh police station area. Two persons traveling in the car died on the spot while the four others who sustained serious injuries have been referred to Trauma Centre in Lucknow. Train traffic on this route was disrupted for nearly two hours after the accident. This is the fifth accident in series of similar train accidents.[18][19]
22 January 2010 – A goods train derailed near Azamgarh in Uttar Pradesh on Friday, disrupting rail traffic in the region, officials said. No one was injured. The accident took place at Sathiyaon station near Azamgarh, some 300 km from here, when three bogeys of the goods train derailed, an official said. Traffic was disrupted on the busy Varanasi-Azamgarh-Gorakhpur route.[20]
8 May 2010 – The Visakhapatnam - Secunderabad/Hyderabad 2727 Godavari Express escaped from a mishap, as the engine loses the link between the coaches, the driver/Trainman informs the railway station about the detachment and joins the coaches once again, the train safely arrives at the secunderabad railway station on Saturday morning (May 8, 2010)
25 May 2010 – A Rajdhani Express train travelling from Delhi to Guwahati derailed in Naugachia, Bihar at IST 6:40 am (UTC+5:30).[21] All passengers survived and 11 sustained minor injuries.[22] The train derailed as the driver applied emergency brakes after listening to a loud explosion nearby. Currently, no Maoists link is being indicated. There were no casualties reported as the coaches did not fall off the tracks. All passengers were taken from the train. The injured were treated by the medical officials present on the spot.The derailment halted all railway traffic in the Delhi-Guwahati line. While five passenger trains, including the Tatanagar -Chapra Express, have been cancelled, at least three express trains have been diverted. These include the Awadh Assam Express, Mahananda Express and the Barmer-Guwahati Express.[23] A special 17-coach train was sent to take the 986 passengers on-board the derailed train to their destinations.
28 May 2010 – West Bengal, the Gyaneshwari Express train derailment, a suspected Naxalite terrorist attack kills at least 170 people when the Gyaneshwari Express is derailed by an explosion, and then struck by a goods train.[24]
4 June 2010 – Mini bus was hit by the Coimbatore-Mettupalayam special train at an unmanned level-crossing at Idigarai near Coimbatore on Friday. Five people were killed in the accident.[25]
18 June 2010 – At least 27 persons were injured, two of them critically, when the 8084 Amaravati Express from Vasco-da Gama to Howrah derailed near Koppal (Karnataka) after ramming into a road-roller at an unmanned level crossing.[26]
19 July 2010 – Sainthia train collision occurred in Sainthia, West Bengal, India, when the Uttar Banga Express collided with the Vananchal Express. Casualties stand at 63 people dead[27] and more than 165 people injured, with many still trapped in wreckage[28][29][30]
17 August 2010 – Four people got killed in a train accident which occurred on Faizabad-Lucknow rail-section at Goryamau railway station of Barabanki district located between Rudauli and Rozagaon towns.[31]
24 August 2010 – Two persons escaped with minor injuries when the four-wheeler on which they were travelling was hit by a speeding train coming from Lucknow and going towards Sultanpur) at an unmanned railway crossing under Gosainganj police station in Lucknow district.[32]
20 September 2010 - 33 died and over 160 injured when speeding freight going towards Indore, Madhya Pradesh collided with Indore - Gwalior Intercity Express at Badarwas,Shivpuri, Madhya Pradesh.
The freight was in a real blast over 95 kmph. The collison was so hard that the loco of intercity Express remained on same place and the coaches behind it jumped over it. It is said that the locopilot of the freight overshot the signal and pointmsan was unable to divide the loop line from the main line and the freight went on the same line where Intercity Express was standing.
21 September 2010 - Five wagons of a goods train derail between Phaphund and Kanchausi near Kanpur on the Kanpur-Tundla section at about 8:20am Tuesday morning. Following the incident, the electric supply to the over head equipment is cut off so that the movement of trains is stopped. Railway traffic on the down line is restored at about 3:50pm while traffic on the up line is restored at about 3:10pm.[33]
24 September 2010 - At least 12 people were injured when the engine and a bogie of the Kasganj-Lucknow Rohilkhand Express derailed near Kasganj railway station early Friday. The train derailed at 5:30 am while passing through a culvert near Kasganj in Kanshi Ram Nagar district.[34]
4 October 2010 – A goods train heading from Lucknow to Moradabad, derailed near Rasoiya station in Uttar Pradesh's Bareilly district, some 200 km from Lucknow derailed. Rail traffic on the busy Delhi-Lucknow route was disrupted. Two wagons of the train derailed and damaged the railway tracks. This affected movement of several long and short distance trains. No casualty was reported.[35]
Source: www.wikipedia.org/
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
BIRTH CENTENARY OF DR KOTNIS OBSERVED
THE All India Peace and Solidarity Organisation (AIPSO) had organised a public meeting in New Delhi on October 8, commemorating the birth centenary of Dr Dwarakanath Shantaram Kotnis. A six-member Chinese delegation led by Mao Rubai, adviser to the Chinese People's Association for Peace and Disarmament and former chairman of the Committee on Environmental and Resources Protection, NPC, attended and addressed the meeting along with the leaders of various political parties. Zhang Yan, the ambassador of China to India also attended the meeting and addressed the gathering. Prior to the meeting in Delhi, the Chinese delegation visited Kolkata and Benguluru and addressed the memorial meetings.
In the Delhi meeting, Pallab Sen Gupta, general secretary of the AIPSO presided over the meeting and introduced the dignitaries on the dais. Zhang Yan, in his speech remarked that this commemoration coincides with the 60th anniversary of the establishment of the diplomatic ties between China and India. He stated Dr Kotnis was a great son of India and a great friend of China. He urged the people to follow the footsteps of Dr Kotnis, and make new contributions to the enhancement of mutual understanding and mutual beneficiary cooperation between China and India.
Mao Rubai, the leader of the Chinese delegation spoke on behalf of the delegation. Paying rich tributes, he recalled the heroic role of Dr Kotnis during the Japanese war of aggression over China. He stated that India and China, two of the oldest civilisations on the earth, should live by the example of Dr Kotnis, who had epitomised the highest ideals of friendship. He said both the countries should also work to promote peace in the region and the world over and strive to ensure a world free of nuclear armaments.
In the Delhi meeting, Pallab Sen Gupta, general secretary of the AIPSO presided over the meeting and introduced the dignitaries on the dais. Zhang Yan, in his speech remarked that this commemoration coincides with the 60th anniversary of the establishment of the diplomatic ties between China and India. He stated Dr Kotnis was a great son of India and a great friend of China. He urged the people to follow the footsteps of Dr Kotnis, and make new contributions to the enhancement of mutual understanding and mutual beneficiary cooperation between China and India.
Mao Rubai, the leader of the Chinese delegation spoke on behalf of the delegation. Paying rich tributes, he recalled the heroic role of Dr Kotnis during the Japanese war of aggression over China. He stated that India and China, two of the oldest civilisations on the earth, should live by the example of Dr Kotnis, who had epitomised the highest ideals of friendship. He said both the countries should also work to promote peace in the region and the world over and strive to ensure a world free of nuclear armaments.
Sitaram Yechury, Polit Bureau member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and presidium member of the AIPSO, recalled the significance of the sacrifice of Dr Kotnis. He reminded the audience of the enormous personal hardships endured by Dr Kotnis while serving in the Doctors’ Mission sent to China by the Indian National Congress on behalf of the Indian people. He said Dr Kotnis represents the best spirit of humanism and international solidarity. Briefly explaining Dr Kotnis' political journey that culminated with his becoming the member of the CPC, he stated how the life of Dr Kotnis inspired many Indians to work selflessly for the people’s cause. He also recalled the centuries’ long traditions of friendship and cultural relations that existed between India and China and said these bonds between the peoples of the two countries need to be further strengthened. Cautioning the people not to fall into the trap of those propagating that the interests of the two countries are antagonistic, he appealed them to see through these designs.
Amarjeet Kaur, member of the national secretariat of the CPI, Devarajan, member of the secretariat of the Forward Bloc also addressed the gathering.
Courtesy: www.pd.cpim.org
BIRTH CENTENARY OF DR KOTNIS OBSERVED
THE All India Peace and Solidarity Organisation (AIPSO) had organised a public meeting in New Delhi on October 8, commemorating the birth centenary of Dr Dwarakanath Shantaram Kotnis. A six-member Chinese delegation led by Mao Rubai, adviser to the Chinese People's Association for Peace and Disarmament and former chairman of the Committee on Environmental and Resources Protection, NPC, attended and addressed the meeting along with the leaders of various political parties. Zhang Yan, the ambassador of China to India also attended the meeting and addressed the gathering. Prior to the meeting in Delhi, the Chinese delegation visited Kolkata and Benguluru and addressed the memorial meetings.
In the Delhi meeting, Pallab Sen Gupta, general secretary of the AIPSO presided over the meeting and introduced the dignitaries on the dais. Zhang Yan, in his speech remarked that this commemoration coincides with the 60th anniversary of the establishment of the diplomatic ties between China and India. He stated Dr Kotnis was a great son of India and a great friend of China. He urged the people to follow the footsteps of Dr Kotnis, and make new contributions to the enhancement of mutual understanding and mutual beneficiary cooperation between China and India.
Mao Rubai, the leader of the Chinese delegation spoke on behalf of the delegation. Paying rich tributes, he recalled the heroic role of Dr Kotnis during the Japanese war of aggression over China. He stated that India and China, two of the oldest civilisations on the earth, should live by the example of Dr Kotnis, who had epitomised the highest ideals of friendship. He said both the countries should also work to promote peace in the region and the world over and strive to ensure a world free of nuclear armaments.
In the Delhi meeting, Pallab Sen Gupta, general secretary of the AIPSO presided over the meeting and introduced the dignitaries on the dais. Zhang Yan, in his speech remarked that this commemoration coincides with the 60th anniversary of the establishment of the diplomatic ties between China and India. He stated Dr Kotnis was a great son of India and a great friend of China. He urged the people to follow the footsteps of Dr Kotnis, and make new contributions to the enhancement of mutual understanding and mutual beneficiary cooperation between China and India.
Mao Rubai, the leader of the Chinese delegation spoke on behalf of the delegation. Paying rich tributes, he recalled the heroic role of Dr Kotnis during the Japanese war of aggression over China. He stated that India and China, two of the oldest civilisations on the earth, should live by the example of Dr Kotnis, who had epitomised the highest ideals of friendship. He said both the countries should also work to promote peace in the region and the world over and strive to ensure a world free of nuclear armaments.
Sitaram Yechury, Polit Bureau member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and presidium member of the AIPSO, recalled the significance of the sacrifice of Dr Kotnis. He reminded the audience of the enormous personal hardships endured by Dr Kotnis while serving in the Doctors’ Mission sent to China by the Indian National Congress on behalf of the Indian people. He said Dr Kotnis represents the best spirit of humanism and international solidarity. Briefly explaining Dr Kotnis' political journey that culminated with his becoming the member of the CPC, he stated how the life of Dr Kotnis inspired many Indians to work selflessly for the people’s cause. He also recalled the centuries’ long traditions of friendship and cultural relations that existed between India and China and said these bonds between the peoples of the two countries need to be further strengthened. Cautioning the people not to fall into the trap of those propagating that the interests of the two countries are antagonistic, he appealed them to see through these designs.
Amarjeet Kaur, member of the national secretariat of the CPI, Devarajan, member of the secretariat of the Forward Bloc also addressed the gathering.
Courtesy: www.pd.cpim.org
Monday, October 18, 2010
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