BJP Slams Mamata
On Tuesday, the BJP claimed that Mamata Banerjee, the chief minister of West Bengal and leader of the TMC, travelled to Odisha to see those who had been injured in the Balasore triple train tragedy in order to “earn a political benefit.”
The saffron camp also asserted that Banerjee’s time as railway minister was marked by a high number of train accidents.
The ruling TMC slammed the BJP over such allegations, asserting that the saffron camp was trying to “malign the image of its chairperson to divert attention from the Centre’s all-round failure”.
Claiming that over 500 train mishaps had taken place during the stint of Banerjee in railways, BJP national vice president Dilip Ghosh told reporters, “Didi’s (as Banerjee is called in Bengal) visits Odisha, two days back and on Tuesday, are to get political dividend only.”
“We all know that over 800 derailments had taken place and 1,400 people died when she was the railway minister. What prevented her from adopting the anti-collision device? Why didn’t she go for the modernisation drive then?” Ghosh said.
Banerjee visited the injured Coromandel Express passengers who are receiving treatment in several Cuttack hospitals during the day.
She visited the SCB Medical College and Hospital’s eye and surgical department, spoke with the patients there, and gave them her word that she would do everything in her power to help.
“We think the biggest scam happened in the railways during the tenure of Mamata Banerjee,” Ghosh, the former state BJP president, said.
Accusing the BJP of trying to malign the image of Banerjee to divert attention from the all-around failure of the Centre, TMC spokesperson Santanu Sen said, “Whenever the saffron party finds itself in a spot, it resorts to the blame game.”
“The chief minister has been monitoring the situation in Balasore after the triple train accident on June 2 evening. She rushed to the disaster site the next day to be on the side of the people and again today to hospitals in Odisha. This has made the BJP despondent and they are levelling all kinds of charges against her and the TMC,” Sen said.
At 7 p.m. on June 2, the Coromandel Express collided with a stopped goods train, derailing the majority of its coaches. Almost 1,200 people were hurt, and 288 people died as a result of the tragedy.
The final few coaches of the Bengaluru-Howrah Express, which was passing through at the same time, were knocked over by a few Coromandel coaches.
The three-train disaster may have been caused by human error, signal failure, or other factors, according to investigators.
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