Senior Congress leader Pranab Mukherjee on Monday sought to dismiss suggestions that Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee’s absence from her Ministry was the reason for recurrence of train accidents.
“Accidents are accidents. Nobody can predict, that’s why it is an accident. I don’t think so,” he told reporters when asked whether the country needs a full time Railway Minister as there was another accident in less than two months.
More than 60 people are feared dead and 90 injured in an early morning collision between Uttarbanga Express and Vananchal Express that took place at Sainthia station in Birbhum district of West Bengal.
Meanwhile, Congress president Sonia Gandhi has condoled the loss of lives in the train accident in Sainthia and conveyed her deep condolences to the bereaved families and wished speedy recovery to the injured.
On May 28, 148 people had lost their lives in another accident in the state when the Jnaneshwari express had met with an accident near Jhargram, with the Railway minister alleging a ‘political conspiracy’ behind it.
