IRKED OVER the recent spate of rail accidents, Railways Minister Suresh Prabhu on Tuesday gave an earful to the General Managers (GMs) -- officials in charge of running operations in the 17 railway zones -- telling them that he would not take any excuses on the safety front. He also gave the GMs a six-month deadline to pull up their socks. Since April, as many as 54 accidents, including 29 derailments, have been reported. The minister did not hide his annoyance over this when he addressed the GMs at a day-long conference -- a close-door meeting -- at Rail Bhavan. "The minister told the GMs that the time for excuses was over and it was time senior officials like GMs owned responsibility," a railway source told The Indian Express. Prabhu, sources said, told the GMs that it was unfortunate that he had to call a meeting of such senior officials to discuss a basic issue like safety. He told them that they were the professionals running the system and were the ones who had developed these systems so they should not be waiting for a minister - who's a politician essentially - to tell them how to run trains, a source said.

• published: 15 Sep 2015
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