Nagpur/Mumbai, (PTI) Senior Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Ajit Pawar on Saturday termed the Odisha train accident a failure of the government and said Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw should resign from the post by taking moral responsibility for the tragedy.

Talking to reporters in Nagpur city of Maharashtra, Pawar also said that although the minister’s resignation will not change the situation, it would send out a message to the railway officials.

At least 261 people were killed and 650 injured in the train crash that occurred in Odisha’s Balasore district around 7 pm on Friday involving the Bengaluru-Howrah Superfast Express, the Shalimar-Chennai Central Coromandel Express and a goods train. This train crash is the fourth deadliest in India according to available records.

“In the past, five railway ministers resigned taking moral responsibility for major accidents (during their tenure). In the same way, the current railway minister (Vaishnaw) should take moral responsibility and tender his resignation,” Pawar said.

“His resignation won’t solve the issue, but it would send out a message to the officials,” the Leader of Opposition in Maharashtra Assembly said.

He also targeted the Centre over the issue of railway passengers’ safety.

“The government is planning to start bullet trains in different parts of the country. Similarly, Vande Bharat trains are being started and many routes have been privatised. But while doing all this, so many innocent people lost their lives despite no fault of theirs,” Pawar said.

The train accident took place because of some fault in the signalling system, he said.

“So many innocent lives were lost even as a revolution is taking place in transportation technology. This is a failure of the railway department and the government,” the former Maharashtra deputy chief minister said.

A high-level inquiry be conducted into the accident without any interference and facts should be brought before the public, he demanded.

Speaking to reporters at the city airport earlier in the day, the NCP leader said, “The Odisha train accident is very unfortunate. The country has never seen such a big train accident before. The railway department and the government should immediately investigate it and take action against those responsible.” The Centre and the railway ministry should give utmost priority to the safety of passengers, he said.

“Earlier, railway ministers used to resign whenever such accidents occurred. This is history. But nobody is ready to speak about it now,” he said.

Meanwhile, NCP spokesperson Clyde Crasto said in a statement, “Expecting Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw to resign on moral grounds for the Odisha train accident will not yield any result, because if the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) believed in morality then it would have asked (outgoing WFI chief and party MP) Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh to resign a long time ago.” We only hope the government makes sure that the family of those deceased get the compensation as promised, the injured get proper treatment and are taken good care of till they recover completely, he said.

Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh is facing allegations of sexually harassing women wrestlers. Two FIRs have been registered against him by the Delhi police on the basis of complaints from six women wrestlers and the father of a minor. The opposition parties are accusing the Centre of “inaction” against Singh.