Railway Board chairman Ashok Mittal takes moral responsibility for accidents, quits

The chairman of the Railway Board Ashok Mittal has resigned, owning responsibility on moral grounds, following two major train accidents in quick succession in the last five days.

Television reports said Mittal submitted his resignation to railway minister Suresh Prabhu today morning, but officials in the Railway Bhavan refused to confirm this.

Mittal resigned shortly after news that Kaifiyat Express derailed in Auraiya district of Uttar Pradesh. The train on its run from Azamgarh to Delhi collided with a dumper between Pata and Achhalda railway stations and derailed, injuring more than 70.

As many as 74 passengers were injured as nine bogies of the train derailed after dashing against a dumper carrying construction material for railway work, according to railway officials.

The train was travelling from Azamgarh to Delhi when it collided with the dumper at around 2:50 am between Pata and Achhalda railway stations, a spokesperson for the North Central Railway (NCR) said

The accident comes just four days after the Utkal Express derailed near Muzaffarnagar on Saturday, leaving 22 dead and injuring more than 150 people. Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu had directed the Railway Board chairman to fix responsibility on "prima facie evidence by the end of day" into the derailment of the Utkal Express, also in Uttar Pradesh.

After a preliminary probe found that unscheduled track maintenance works caused the derailment, the railway ministry sent three top officials - member (engineering) in the Railway Board Aditya Kumar Mittal, Northern Railway general manager R K Kulshrestha and divisional railway manager (Delhi) R N Singh - on leave.

Besides the ministry had suspended four of its other officials and transferred one from Delhi division of Northern Railway.

Mittal was supposed to retire in July 2016 but had been granted an extension of two years till 2018.