Mumbai stampede is a 'man-made' disaster, says Sonia Gandhi

NEW DELHI: Terming death of 22 persons in a stampede at rail foot-over-bridge in Mumbai a “man-made” disaster, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi said the incident could have been avoided by taking care of the safety aspect.
Demanding an impartial judicial enquiry by a sitting judge into the incident, Congress targeted Modi government for increase in rail accidents during BJP regime.
Expressing shock and anguish over the incident, Sonia Gandhi said she hoped a proper inquiry would be conducted to fix responsibility for the tragedy on the narrow foot overbridge connecting the Parel-Elphinstone Road stations of Western Railway.
In a statement, Congress chief expressed concern over rail safety in the country and said "such accidents could have been avoided had there been proper planning and concern for safety issues".
Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, in a tweet, said, “Deeply pained to know about the tragic stampede at #Elphinstone station. My thoughts with the families of the victims.”
Congress spokesperson Sushmita Dev said, “While railway minister Piyush Goel is busy in on a ‘name changing’ and ‘ribbon cutting’ spree, people are anguished and demanding answers,”
Dev demanded a safety audit of all foot over bridges, platforms and overhead bridges of the entire Mumbai suburban railway system.
Slamming Modi government, she said, “Around 259 passengers have been killed, 973 injured in 29 major railway accidents since the Modi government took office.”
Dev added, “India led the world in railway accidents, by recording the maximum number of causalities and accidents in 2016 in any country. This has been the highest in a decade.”
The opposition party attacked the government for massive vacancies in safety related posts.
“Around 1.42 lakh posts for safety staff remain unfilled, which experts say, is a major concern and clear case of official apathy. Total number of vacancies in the safety categories including Group C & Group D (Front Line Categories) is 1,25,754,” Dev said.