By Nava Thakuria*
Guwahati: The new railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw should ensure that the carnage of wildlife on the railway track in various parts of the country should be prevented.
Making an appeal to this effect to the Minister, newly inducted in the Union Cabinet, the All Assam Engineer’s Association (AAEA) termed the regular incidents relating to the annihilation of Asiatic elephants by superfast trains as “very depressing”. “It should be stopped at any cost,” AAEA president Er Kailash Sarma said in a statement here today.
The AAEA further categorically stated that the railway ministry should completely reform the management of excreta discharged from coaches carrying the passengers. Statistics reveal that over 2,44,000 bio-toilets have been installed in over 69,000 train bogies. The number should be enhanced so that the deposition of human waste on the railway track can be reduced drastically.
Greeting the new minister the AAEA engineers expressed hope that Vaishnaw, who is also a technocrat, would ensure all-round growth of Indian Railways.
Vaishnaw is an alumnus of Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, and the AAEA hoped he would use the information technology extensively in the management of railways for the benefit of millions of commuters across the country every single day.
*The writer is a senior journalist
