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Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw Sunday said the Railway Board has decided to recommend that the additional investigation into the Odisha train accident that has left 275 dead so far be undertaken by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
The announcement came hours after the minister told state-owned broadcaster Doordarshan in a morning interview that the “root cause” of the accident and the people responsible for it have been identified.
Keeping in mind the situation and circumstances under which the accident took place, and the administrative information gathered so far, the Railway Board is recommending that further inquiry and investigation into the case be undertaken by the CBI.
In the interview to Doordarshan, he had said: “Whoever has done this, has done such a change — on the point machine, the configuration of the track — based on which everything runs.
There has been a change in that configuration, because of which this painful accident has happened. But I will comment on that only after the report of the independent agency is submitted.
The electric point machine Vaishnaw referred to is a vital device for railway signalling for quick operation and locking of point switches. It plays a key role in the safe running of trains.
Failure of these machines severely affect train movement and deficiencies at the time of installation can result in unsafe conditions.
The statutory probe by the Commissioner of Railway Safety (CRS) will continue simultaneously. The accident involving the Bengaluru-Howrah Superfast Express, the Shalimar-Chennai Central Coromandel Express and a goods train near the Bahanaga Bazar station in Odisha’s Balasore district. On Sunday, the state government said 275 people lost their lives.
Editorial
Repairing a lifetime (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 2, Governance)
The collision in Balasore, Odisha, on June 2, between two express passenger trains and a stopped freight train, is perhaps the deadliest train accident on record in the last 20 years.
It resulted in 275 fatalities, according to the most recent official statistics, and more than 1,000 injuries. The last train accident with so many fatalities occurred in Tanzania on June 24, 2002, when a passenger train and a freight train collided on a hill railway, leaving 281 people dead.
The seriousness of the rail safety situation in India can be understood by considering the following facts. Accidents involving passenger trains are extremely uncommon in countries with developed railway systems like Japan, China, Turkey, and several European nations like France, Spain, Germany, Italy, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.
In these railways, most passenger trains travel at a maximum speed of 200–350 kmph, clocking an average speed of 150–250 kmph, which is three to five times faster than the speed in India, which is roughly 50 kmph.
Despite the slow speed of trains, fatal train accidents happen frequently in India. India would probably place slightly higher than Egypt, Mexico, Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Nigeria, and Pakistan if a ranking of the world’s major railways were to be made based on safety performance.
Explained
What Law commission said on sedition law (Page no. 15)
(GS Paper 2, Governance)
Nearly a year after the Supreme Court stayed the operation of the sedition law, the Law Commission of India has recommended that the provision be retained with procedural safeguards and enhanced jail term. Why has the Commission recommended strengthening sedition law?
The 88-page report by the present or the 22nd Law Commission of India, headed by former Karnataka High Court Chief Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi, stated that the Commission had received a reference from the Ministry of Home Affairs in March 2016, for a study of the usage of the sedition law and suggest amendments, if any.
The Commission, however, took up this reference in November 2022, a few months after the Supreme Court bench, headed by then Chief Justice of India N V Ramana, stayed the penal provision in May 2022.
By ruling that “it will be appropriate not to continue” with the offence of sedition till the government reviewed the provision, the Supreme Court while testing the constitutionality of Section 124A of the Indian Penal Code had raised the bar for the government to invoke the provision.
Although the court did not explicitly stay the provision — no criminal law in force has ever been stayed by the court — it virtually stalled the operation of the provision.
In its order, the Court, referring to the government’s affidavit, recorded that “in view of the above, it is clear that the Union of India agrees with the prima facie opinion expressed by this Court that the rigours of Section 124A of IPC is not in tune with the current social milieu, and was intended for a time when this country was under the colonial regime.”
How AI helped find an antibiotic for a superbug (Page no. 15)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Technology)
In a major breakthrough for the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the field of medicine, scientists from the United States and Canada have found a new antibiotic – powerful enough to kill a superbug – using AI.
Superbugs are bacteria that are resistant to several types of antibiotics. Each year these drug-resistant bacteria infect more than 2 million people in the US and kill at least 23,000, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The study (‘Deep learning-guided discovery of an antibiotic targeting Acinetobacter baumannii’) published in the journal Nature Chemical Biology on May 25 dealt with the bacterium Acinetobacter baumannii and saw participation from Canada’s McMaster University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the US.
In 2017, the bacterium was identified by the World Health Organization (WHO) as one of the world’s most dangerous antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
Notoriously difficult to eradicate, A. baumannii can cause pneumonia, meningitis and infect wounds, all of which can lead to death. A. baumanni is usually found in hospital settings, where it can survive on surfaces for long periods.
The WHO’s list of superbugs highlighted bacteria that are having built-in abilities to find new ways to resist treatment and can pass along genetic material that allows other bacteria to become drug-resistant as well.
Antibiotics are medicines used to prevent and treat bacterial infections. Antibiotic resistance occurs when bacteria change in response to the use of these medicines, says the WHO. This ultimately threatens the ability of medicines to treat common infectious diseases.
World
Nepal Opp accuses PM of 'sell-out' to India on return, Supreme Court stays Citizenship Bill (Page no. 16)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
Nepal Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal’s trip to Delhi that he described as ‘very successful’ has apparently united the opposition parties which together have accused him of a total ‘sell-out’ to India.
The House of Representatives was adjourned for the day on Sunday to meet on Monday as the Opposition comprising Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist, Rashtriya Prajatantra Party, Rashtriya Swatantra Party and the Nepal Mazdoor Kisan Party, asked the Speaker to stop the listed business and have PM summoned to address their grievances.
As members refused to relent, Speaker Devraj Ghimire adjourned the House and ruled that it will meet the next day. In the meantime, a single bench of the Supreme Court comprising justice Manoj Kumar Sharma issued an interim stay on the operation of the Citizenship Bill that President Ram Chandra Poudel had approved in just a couple of hours before Dahal was to embark on an official visit to Delhi.
Economy
OPEC + holds difficult talks on cuts as group faces looming oil supply glut (Page no. 17)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
Nepal Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal’s trip to Delhi that he described as ‘very successful’ has apparently united the opposition parties which together have accused him of a total ‘sell-out’ to India.
The House of Representatives was adjourned for the day on Sunday to meet on Monday as the Opposition comprising Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist, Rashtriya Prajatantra Party, Rashtriya Swatantra Party and the Nepal Mazdoor Kisan Party, asked the Speaker to stop the listed business and have PM summoned to address their grievances.
As members refused to relent, Speaker Devraj Ghimire adjourned the House and ruled that it will meet the next day. In the meantime, a single bench of the Supreme Court comprising justice Manoj Kumar Sharma issued an interim stay on the operation of the Citizenship Bill that President Ram Chandra Poudel had approved in just a couple of hours before Dahal was to embark on an official visit to Delhi.
PM Dahal had gone beyond brief and at the cost of national interest as he refused to take up with India the border dispute issue, and a mural on the wall of new Parliament building allegedly showing Lumbini and Kapilvastu as part of Akhand Bharat.
The approval of the Bill is believed to have addressed Delhi’s wish expressed some five years ago on the issue of granting citizenship to people in Tarai, adjoining India.