RailEnquiry

A Parliamentary Standing Committee has recommended that the post of the Commissioner for Railway Safety (CRS), which investigates rail accidents and monitors safety, be made an independent regulator.And the committee headed by CPM MP and PolitBuro member Sitaram Yechury rued the fact that the CRS did not have much of a say in the monitoring of railway safety, except for the investigations into the rail mishaps and the inspection of new rail lines. Not only that, the CRS did not even have the mandate to conduct safety checks periodically.“The CRS does not have any power to carry out the annual audit of safety parameters of the  Railways. The committee emphasises that the CRS should be strengthened with the necessary powers and autonomy for the betterment of railway safety in the country,” the committee said in its report.Interestingly, the Yechury-led panel found that there were dual power centres in the CRS.While the body was directly under the Union Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA), it had to rely on the Union Railway Ministry for personnel and guidelines.“The committee notes that currently the Ministry of Railways, in actual practice, plays the roles of the regulator, the operator and the investigator as the CRS is largely dependent on it in many ways for carrying out its mandate...The committee  agrees in principle with the idea of having a regulator fully independent of the service provider. This has been recommended by the (Anil)Kakodkar Committee as well,” the report said.

According to the panel, even though the CRS  was vested with the  necessary powers to investigate rail mishaps, it normally does so only after receiving a notice from the (Railways) general manager concerned.

And in the case of the rail accidents, for which no notice has been issued and those which the CRS is unable to investigate for some reason, the probe is conducted by the Railway Ministry.