100 dead, trains derailed, poor maintenance, the train hit the rails and slid; Don’t these news shock you and create a fear in your head about the safety of traveling in trains? It does, but the question is have we ever pondered who is responsible for this. It’s time we stop playing the blame game and start thinking about the safety in railways.
NIMCJ held its 42nd Independent Mass Power (IMP) on 1st Nov’18 at NIMCJ on the topic: “Safety Concerns: Is the Railways or Public to blame?” which was also transmitted live on the Facebook page of ‘Independent Mass Power’ – www.facebook.com/impmasstalk . IMP is a student forum for discussions on important topics at local, state, national and international level, and also entertainment, literature and many such areas. The Amritsar train accident had been disappointing and disheartening which brought out several questions that the panelists tried to discuss in this IMP. With arguments and debates among each other, the end result of IMP was very effective as it tries to bring out the remedies of the problem and raises awareness amongst the population.
The panel comprised of Mr. Prahlad Joshi, the subject expert and truly played the role of a great moderator in the IMP along with panelists Neerendra V Nath, Mitesh Parmar, Sagufta Sheikh who was on public’s side and Prathiusha Poduval, Aakanksha Bhatt & Yug Trivedi in support of the railways.
The IMP commenced with the subject expert spelling out the roles of the Public and the Railways in ensuring the safety of the trains. The panelists in favor of the government mentioned about various actions taken for the safety of public and how they have improvised the railway system in recent years. They questioned the other panelists about how much does the public contribute and follow the rules imposed towards safety. They emphasized that the Government has undoubtedly taken major steps but the panelists supporting the public had a lot more to say in their favor. They questioned the train derailments, an increasing number of accidents and how valuable lives are lost and compensated with money, which cannot bring back the loss of a loved one.
The panelists listed out various mistakes of the public like crossing the railway tracks, damaging the train property and in case of Amritsar train accident standing on the railway tracks to watch events, which are in complete disregard of the rules on safety. There was a consensus on the role of the public to be a aware and are responsible for their own lives.
The panelists also highlighted the ineffectiveness in curbing the accidents which caused loss of precious lives which could be otherwise saved.
With a lot of discussion on this topic, the subject expert played a major role in giving his insight in the topic. He questioned vehemently that Why do people break the rules? How do the lives of people become unworthy? By citing an example of traffic awareness in the country, he says that life of a small creature is also important and life of a human is also precious. He talked about the balance and management failure at macro levels which need to be taken look upon. With public being more aware and government taking strict action we can surely make our railways a better and safer system.
This IMP ended with a unique process of each panelist mentioning the defects that they see in the motion they have chosen and that is very important because to rectify something’ you need to first know the issue.
