Regular rail users, common people and elite group are yet to come out of the trauma from the incident of the Puri Ahmadabad Exp that rolled without engine for more than 11 km and again made a backward journey to make a stop.

Whenever Odisha gets front page national coverage it is always for a bad reason like death due to starvation in Kalahandi, the incident of Fanus Punji or the 1999 super cyclone although there are many good issues in the state that worth front page coverage.

But this time the coverage of Odisha has even crossed national territory. Many reputed international newspapers and TV channels have covered the incident of the Puri Ahmadabad express and surprised over the absence of casualties.

At the same time they have also mentioned the laxity in the Indiana railways as a whole with reference to its track records of accidents. But the rail users and the common people are not ready to take the matter easy.

There are no dearths of such incidents in railways where manmade mistakes have caused fatal accidents and huge loss of lives. Even there are instances where the trains get derailed at stations itself and there were very funny clarification from the department to save their own skins.

“All these happen because railway at the first phase suspends the erring staff and then revoke the suspension to resume duties. Since it has become a regular practice, the staff just take it casually,” opines Saroj Kumar Samantray, a regular rail user.

“Suspension is not a punishment in our country. Hence, suspending a few staff for their gross negligence is not seen appropriate and that rather encourages other staff to do similar mistakes in future since suspension and reinstatement is a routine process,” commented Samantray.

“The rail users and even the intelligentsia demand stringent action against such staff who do nothing but play with others life and property and thereby bring a bad name to one of the world’s largest rail networks. These staff must be shown the door and good and efficient people be put in place,” suggests Dr Dillip Panda, an eminent economist and a retired professor from GM University.

Mrs Sanjukta Mohanty who frequently travels to different place of the country by train instead of air opines that the incident was due to individual lapses. But if the railways lets them off scot free, it’ll create an institutional lapse,” says Mrs Mohanty, a senior advocate and a front line social worker on different Puri Ahmadabad.