As leaders from political parties and Government officials from different States make a beeline for the Baleswar District Headquarters Hospital (DHH) to meet the train accident victims and their relatives as well as the accident site at Bahanaga, opposition leader of West Bengal Suvendu Adhikari (BJP) during his visit to the DHH said Chief Minister of his State, Mamata Banarjee, is in a habit of smelling politics in every issue.
“Her statement regarding the death toll in the railway accident is politically motivated. The death toll figure which has been released is not of the Railways, rather it is of the State Government of Odisha. The State Government here is doing all the things including postmortem, issuing death certificates etc. The Railways has hardly any infrastructure to meet the requirement. So, there is no question of underreporting of the death casualties," said Adhikari to mediapersons praising further the healthcare facilities. He said the healthcare facilities in Odisha is much better than West Bengal and every month at least 30 patients from Bengal are referred to Odisha hospitals with the help of the office of Dharmendra Pradhan.
“She(Mamata) wants to become Prime Minister. Besides, many others in the Opposition including Aravind Kejriwal and Nitish Kumar too are in the PM race. In Bengal there is a lot of corruption and nepotism,” he said .
Earlier in the Press brief, l Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chaudhary on the sideline of a visit to Baleswar with a team had slammed the BJP-led Modi Government alleging the incumbent Government is privatizing the railway in the name of modernization due to which inexperienced persons are engaged in several key jobs including safety and security.
“They are in a hurry for bullet train, metro train and Vande Bharat while passenger and rail safety are largely ignored due to lack of maintenance in the spree of privatization. The Railway Budget has been merged with the General Budget and the provision for DRF fund is being gradually reduced in the Modi regime. As a result, the track, signaling units repair and maintenance were compromised,” said Chaudhary adding “The Railways, which is the lifeline of India carries about 500 crores people per annum to different destinations and the frequent accidents would shake the faith and confidence over the trusted organization."
He, however, didn’t press for the resignation of Railway Minister Ashwani Vaishnaw stating "It is left to his conscience and morality. He could have done it before it is demanded."
Other Congress leaders like Chella Kumar, PCC president Sarat Patnaik and Jeypore MLA Tara Bahinipati were present in the meet.