Jai Jawan, Jai FOB

SOS to army seen as admission of civilian failure

In a shocking admission of its own failure, the Indian Railways and the Government of Maharashtra have roped in the Army to construct a foot over bridge at Elphinstone Road station and two others at Currey Road and Ambivali station, respectively. The three bridges will be completed by January 31, 2018, which the state government hopes to showcase in the run-up to the general elections.

The Army has the primary duty of fighting war but is known to assist civilians in emergency situations -- floods, deluge, earthquake, etc. But Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, hamstrung by his poor delivery schedules, has taken the peacetime role of the forces to another extreme by accepting the unusual intervention of Defence Minister N Sitharaman and Railway Minister Piyush Goel.

Confirming this, an army official said, “The bridges will be temporary but not makeshift. This bridge can be used for even 10 years, if need be, as it will be made of metal.”

The official admitted that this was given as an ‘emergency’ task assigned to the Army. ‘‘It is an emergency hence the Army was called. Maybe this government wants to prove it is doing something out of the way,” said the official.

The opposition, however, dubbed it is as a national shame – since the Railways are not constructing the bridges -- and a colossal failure of the Maharashtra government.

“An army is usually called when the administration has failed. It shows this railway administration has failed and they have owned up to it. Much worse, the Fadnavis government is owning up to this failure. The railway minister must resign,” said Nawab Malik, the national spokesperson of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).

The Congress, too, slammed the Indian Railways and the State government saying they had played with peoples’ lives and had ignored pleas for reconstruction of the Elphinstone Road FOB.

“Since the last two years, citizens have complained about the Elphinstone Road FOB, saying it will collapse. In fact, a day before the stampede a person had tweeted its shoddy condition but the railway minister ignored it. The railways have definitely been careless towards local train commuters,” said Sachin Sawant, Congress leader and spokesperson. Sawant added, “By calling the Army, the BJP government has showcased its inability to build basic amenities.”

A Shiv Sena Member of Parliament and spokesperson said that it was shocking that the railways and the CM did not invite their elected representatives to the impromptu meeting at Elphinstone Road and made the announcement without consulting them. OUR POLITICAL BUREAU ADDS

Opposition parties across the board condemned as "deplorable and atrocious" the Centre’s decision to rope in the Army. National Conference leader Omar Abdullah said it seems the Army is the "1st number on the speed dial" while Congress leader Sanjay Nirupam took a pot shot at the BJPSena government, saying, "Hope Army will

not be called in to fill potholes." Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh said the Army's job is to train for war and protect the country’s borders, not to build bridges and clean the roads. He added that the central and state governments should put their own resources at the disposal of the Railways if the situation was so urgent and serious.

"Whatever the urgency of the situation, it does not merit such a decision, which would have adverse long-term implications as it could encourage the civilian authorities to seek Army help for major civilian works every time they find themselves ill-equipped to handle an infrastructural or other challenge," he said in a statement in Chandigarh.

Singh said N Sitharaman was making the same mistake that Major General BM Kaul, General Officer Commanding of Red Eagles 4th Division, had made before the 1962 war with China. "The scandalous misuse, by him, of military manpower to build residential accommodation cost the Indian Army dear during the Sino-Indian war," the chief minister said.

It would also lower the morale of the Army personnel, who join the force with a vision to secure the country’s borders and to protect its people from the enemy, he added.