'Opposition Using Social Media Troll Army To Make Small Issues Big Ones': Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw In Lok Sabha

Union Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Thursday (1 August) thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his guidance and Finance Minister Nirmala Sithraman for record Budget allocation to Railways.

Urging depoliticisation of Railways, Vishnaw praised constructive suggestions for the betterment of Railways and lashed out at the Opposition for alleging increased incidents of train accidents.

"Those who are shouting here must be asked in their 58 years of being in power, why they were not able to install Automatic Train Protection (ATP), even 1 km. Today, they dare to raise the questions," he said.

"When Mamata Banerjee was the Railway Minister, she used to give the accident numbers that decreased from 0.24 to 0.19. These people used to clap in the House and today when it has decreased from 0.19 to 0.03, they put such blame," he added.

Vaishnaw alleged that the Opposition is raising small railway issues as big ones through its "social media troll army." Citing the example of Ayodhya station, he said, "Samajwadi Party (SP) and Congress raised issues based on lies."

"Are they trying to infuse fear in the hearts of those 2 crore people who travel every day by railways?" he said angrily and applauded 12 lakh Railway employees by clapping.

Vaishnaw said that keeping in mind the increased demand for general coaches, 2,500 more general coaches are being produced and soon all mail/express trains will have a minimum of four general coaches.

On employment in Railways, he said, "From 2004 to 2014 during UPA's tenure, only 4.11 lakh employees were recruited in railways. whereas from 2014 to 2024 - in 10 years of NDA, this tally has gone up to 5.02 lakh."