The Rashtriya Rail Sanraksha Kosh (RRSK), a dedicated rail safety fund set up by the Union government in 2017, was “misused to buy foot massagers, crockery, electrical appliances, furniture, winter jackets, computers and escalators, develop gardens, build toilets, pay salaries and bonuses and erect a flag,” says a report by The Telegraph (TT). RRSK was first introduced in the Union Budget for 2017-18.
The shocking alleged misuse of the rail safety fund has emerged in the background of the train tragedy in Odisha on June 2 — one of the worst train accidents in India that claimed at least 288 lives. Soon after the accident, the BJP-led Union government faced criticism for not implementing Kavach – an automatic train protection system – which is believed to have been able to prevent or mitigated the impact of the train accident. Out of the 1,08,706 km of railway tracks in India, so far, Kavach has been deployed only on 1,455 km. And it was not implemented on the site where the accident took place.
According to the TT report, the misuse of the fund was mentioned in an audit report on derailments in the Indian Railways, submitted by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) in December 2022. Criticising the Union government, former Union Minister and MP Jairam Ramesh, shared a photo on Twitter highlighting the alleged misuse of the fund.
This is how funds specifically meant for railway safety were used. This is the CAG's finding. pic.twitter.com/7zuEhfEvb3
— Jairam Ramesh (@Jairam_Ramesh) June 9, 2023
Though the programme was not well-funded, the share of non-priority works under the RRSK grew from 2.76% in 2017-18 to 6.36% in 2019-20, according to TT. A total of Rs 1,004 crore from the RRSK fund was spent on non-priority works between 2019-20, in violation of guidelines on how the fund must be spent, the report found. “A random audit scrutiny of 11,464 vouchers over four select months – December 2017, March 2019, September 2019 and January 2021 – pertaining to a 48-month period from 2017-18 to 2020-21 and covering two chosen divisions of each zonal railway revealed ‘incorrect bookings of expenditure’ worth Rs 48.21 crore under the safety fund,” TT said.
TT said that the CAG report draws attention to a white paper on the Indian Railways prepared in 2015, which recommended that 4,500 km of tracks in the 1.14 lakh-kilometre railway network be renewed annually, stating that this was one of the main reasons the RRSK fund was set up.
Soon after the Odisha accident, on June 5, Leader of the Opposition and Congress national president Mallkarjun Kharge had written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, pointing out the alleged negligence of the Railway Board. “The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Transport Tourism and Culture in its 323rd Report (dated December 2022) has criticised the complete apathy and negligence of the Railway Board towards recommendations of the Commission of Railway Safety (CRS). The report further revealed how the CRS investigates into only 8% to 10% of train accidents. Why has no effort been made to make CRS stronger and ensure its autonomy?” he asked.
“The latest audit report of CAG makes a special mention of how between 2017-18 to 2020 21, about seven out of 10 train accidents happened due to derailment from tracks. But this was erroneously ignored. Between 2017-21, there was zero testing of Rail and Weld (Track Maintenance) for safety in East Coast Railway. Why were these grave red flags ignored?” the letter questioned.
“The CAG report also highlights that funding for the Rashtriya Rail Sanraksha Kosh (RRSK) has been reduced by a massive 79%. It was claimed during the budget presentation that about Rs 20,000 crore would be available annually, but this was not done. Why were the required funds not allocated for track renewal work? Is this not being callous about the safety of passengers?” Kharge had written.