Even as the Indian Railways on Sunday virtually ruled out driver error and system malfunction, indicating a possible “sabotage” and tampering of the electronic interlocking system behind the triple train accident that claimed at least 288 lives in Odisha, the Chief Secretary of the State, PK Jena on Sunday said his Government has no intention to hide the deaths in the Balasore train crash and the entire rescue operation was being conducted in full public view.
Reacting to allegations that the death toll figure was being manipulated, he said Odisha believes in transparency. "Media persons are very much present at the accident site since the beginning. Everything is being done in the presence of cameras," he said.
"The railways had stated the death toll as 288. We also said that, and the figure was based on the information from railway. But, our Balasore district collector has verified the death toll, and the figure was 275 till 10 am of Sunday," he said.
Asked about the change in the toll, Jena said it was due to double counting of some bodies.
The chief secretary said there was also no prohibition on the entry of media persons at the accident site. "The rescue and even restoration activities went on in full public view," he said.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee questioned the death figures, stating that 61 people from her state were dead and 182 were still missing.
"If from one state, 182 are missing and 61 are confirmed dead, then where would the figures stand?" she asked, addressing a press conference.
Railway Minister Ashiwini Vaishnaw declined to take any questions from journalists in connection with Banerjee's allegation.
Of the 275 dead bodies, only 108 have been identified, the Chief Secretary said.
He said the State would like all the bodies to be identified so that those could be cremated by their families.
"Keeping in view the prevailing hot weather, the bodies are decomposing fast. Therefore, the state can maximum wait for two more days before disposing of them as per the law," he said.
Meanwhile, earlier the Railways on Sunday virtually ruled out driver error and system malfunction, indicating a possible “sabotage” and tampering of the electronic interlocking system behind the triple train accident that claimed at least 288 lives in Odisha.
Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said the “root cause” of the accident and the “criminals” responsible for it have been identified.
“It happened due to a change made in the electronic interlocking and point machine,” he told reporters at the site of the accident in Balasore district.
Here in Delhi, top railway officials explained how the point machine and the interlocking system function.
They said the system is “error proof” and “fail safe” but did not rule out the possibility of outside intervention.
“It is called a fail safe system, so it means that even if it fails, all the signals will turn red and all train operations will stop. Now, as the minister said there was a problem with the signalling system. It could be that someone has done some digging without seeing the cables. Running of any machine is prone to failures,” Jaya Verma Sinha, Member of Operation and Business Development, Railway Board, said.
A senior railway official who did not want to be identified said this kind of tinkering with the “logic” of the AI-based electronic interlocking system can only be “intentional” and ruled out any malfunction in the system.
The minister also said that the Commissioner of Railway Safety has completed an investigation and the report is awaited.