RailEnquiry

Mumbai: A parliamentary standing committee has recommended the formation of an independent regulator to enhance safety standards and their compliance by the railways to prevent accidents.
    The recommendation was made by the Department-related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Transport, Tourism and Culture, which conducted an in-depth study on the functioning of the Commission of Railway Safety (CRS) in the wake of a series of railway accidents.
    The CRS directs, advises and cautions the railways administration through its inspectorial, investigatory and advisory functions.
    The parliamentary committee, in its report presented to the Lok Sabha speaker and the Rajya Sabha chairperson on Wednesday, noted that the CRS needs to be empowered to increase its autonomy and maintain its effectiveness as an accident investigator.
    The committee observed that although the Railways Act provides that the CRS can probe any accident, in reality it is not able to do so in view of the limitations — legal, infrastructural, technical and manpower — under which it functions. “This presents a highly disappointing picture, where the CRS’s powers relating to accident investigation, the basic mandate of CRS, is greatly restricted,” it noted.
    The committee, headed by MP Sitaram Yechury, agreed in principle with the idea of having a regulator fully independent of the service provider, as was also suggested by the Kakodkar committee.
    Though the CRS is under the administrative control of Ministry of Civil Aviation, it takes its origin and discharges its duties according to the rules and regulations framed under the Railways Act. The parliamentary committee felt such a scenario leads to avoidable confusion and makes it difficult to apportion responsibilities because of duality of control and command in CRS’s functioning.
RECENT ACCIDENTS
Dec 4, 2012 | Transformer fire in Andheri-CST local. Hot oil scalds four commuters
July 19 | Vidarbha Express-EMU collision near Kasara kills one, injures 14
June 26 | Pantograph pieces from CST-Karjat train injure four near Vangani station
June 16 | Virar fast local collides with oncoming Borivli-Churchgate between Andheri and Jogeshwari Times View: Reasoned recommendation I t’s a sound idea to make the Commission of Railway Safety an independent agency so that other railway wings have no scope to “lean on” it during probes. The CRS is more of an auditing or probing agency and the auditor (or investigator) should always be free of influences from the agency whose work it’s auditing (or probing).