The Supreme Court of India has received a public interest litigation (PIL) petition seeking the formation of a probe panel headed by a retired apex court judge to probe the recent train accident in Odisha’s Balasore.
The probe panel has to be formed for the June 2 accident that resulted in death of about 288 and over 1,000 people injured.
It involved the Shalimar-Chennai Central Coromandel Express and the Bengaluru-Howrah Superfast Express trains.
The PIL has been filed by advocate Vishal Tiwari who sought certain directions to be issued to the Central government and Indian Railways.
The PIL has sought for setting up an expert commission to be headed by a retired Supreme Court judge that consists of technical members to analyse and review the current risk and safety parameters in the railways
It also requests to set committee for finding the root cause of the incident, and suggest ‘systematic safety modifications’, within two months
The PIL speaks about ensuring implementation of Automatic Train Protection (ATP) system known as KAVACH with immediate effect to ensure public safety
The plea stated that such accidents amount to the violation of life and liberty which are guaranteed by the Article 21.
Putting the point strongly,the plea talks that with unregulated and negligent actions, the Respondent Authorities have time by time shown the country that there needs to be a strict judicial intervention on this matter as this matters the concern of public safety and life which stands at the highest pedestal on the functioning of any state machinery … This type of incidents holds multirole consequences in the form of other train cancellations and diversions of trains bringing in severe inconveniences.
The damage of public properties are widespread which are ultimately the loss of taxpayer’s money of this country”.
The petitioner further submitted that a separate compensation mechanism is required for such tragedies
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