New Delhi: Making rail safety his top priority, Dinesh Trivedi, who took oath as the new Railway Minister on Tuesday, announced a job each to the next of family of the deceased in the Kalka Mail mishap and headed straight for the accident site under party chief Mamata Banerjee's "directive".
"Circumstances are very unfortunate....there is an accident that everybody knows. So I am not going to Rail Bhawan nor my house from the Rashtrapati Bhawan," Trivedi said.
"I am going straight to the accident site. My leader Mamata Banerjee has also directed me that it is the first thing we have to do," Trivedi told reporters soon after taking the oath.
"One member from the families of each of the deceased would be given a job... that is what railways is going to do," he said talking about the mishap which has claimed 69 lives so far.
He would also be travelling on Thursday to Rangia in Assam where the Guwahati-Puri Express had also derailed on Sunday after a blast.
Expressing his gratitude to Mamata, whose name he took a number of times talking to reporters, Dwivedi said she, as the former Railway Minister, had made things easier for her successor in the ministry with her vision document 2020.
"All that a Minister has to do is follow the guidelines (of the Vision 2020) and in those guidelines safety is number one priority," he said, adding Mamata had "sown the seeds of development in railways" and it was now up to him to nurture it.
About his priority, the new Railway Minister said, "My priority is also going to be completion of projects whether in Bengal or any other part of the country."
He also recalled how the former Railway Minister used to visit the Planning Commission on a regular basis seeking funds for safety related works.
Seeking to deflect attention from railways which has been a witness to a large number of mishaps, he said, "Today the number of people dying in road accidents are maximum."
However, in the same breath he clarified that he was saying this to raise awareness about safety. "Safety cannot sleep, it is a number one priority."
Trivedi takes charge of the Ministry in the backdrop of frequent rail accidents and the problem the Railway is facing in the wake of large number of vacancies, especially in safety departments.
The national transporter with over 14 lakh employees, is yet to have a full-fledged Member Traffic, the post which is vital for effective train operation.
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