Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnav was claiming that loco pilots were given all facilities including regulated and monitored working hours in a social media post on July 10. If so why did the Kanchenjunga Exp accident happen recently in North Bengal where it was attributed to the fact that the engine driver had no rest and was working round the clock leading to lesser mental alertness and fatigue. If manpower shortage leading to long working hours for engine drivers was not the cause for the accident then immediately after the Kanchenjunga Exp accident why did the newspapers carry news that some 13,000 loco pilots would be recruited by the Railways. The present announcement by the Minister that some 15,000 loco pilots would be recruited, seems like it is the same as the earlier hiring process of engine drivers being repeated. If so this is yet another jumla by the BJP government to confuse the public by giving data under different names for the hiring process giving the impression that some 28,000 loco pilots are being recruited while the reality is different.
