Railway minister Laloo Prasad Yadav at a hotel in the capital. Picture by Prashant Mitra

Ranchi, April 24: Next time you board a train, say your prayers. For, as railway minister Laloo Prasad Yadav declared today, accidents like the April 21 Sabarmati Express disaster are acts of god over which the railways has little control.

Every year, acts of god claim thousands of lives as the tsunami did last December. ?We have little control over these incidents,? the minister, said soon after landing in the capital today.

He was in Ranchi to appear before a CBI court in connection with the framing of charges in the animal husbandry department scam (case no: RC 68A/96).

Laloo Prasad was, however, quick to point out that the Indian Railways was doing it all can to reduce the number of accidents. ?Do we want to kill our own people?? he said.

He said the railways was thinking of installing satellite guided anti-collision devices on trains to warn drivers of approaching obstacles on the track. Other steps are being taken to reduce rail mishaps, he added.

A surprisingly-mellow Yadav, however, was more intent on scoring political points over the latest controversy in Gujarat, involving the alleged attack on him while he was making an on-the-spot inspection of the Sabarmati rail disaster.

He accused BJP, VHP and RSS elements of acting at the behest of the Narendra Modi government in orchestrating the assault on his car.

?They first hurled a large slab of ice at me. When that missed, a stone was hurled at my car, which broke the rear windscreen. The Narendra Modi government is now trying to dilute the case by claiming that nothing happened during my visit to the Sabarmati Express accident site,? Yadav said. The minister pointed out that the railways has already lodged an FIR in this connection and that steps were being taken to expose the Modi government.

When it was pointed out to him that a team of the Bihar special task force had today raided the residence of RJD MP Mohammad Shahabuddin and recovered a large cache of arms, Yadav retorted that the incident was a conspiracy of the police to implicate his associate. A defiant Yadav, however, asserted that the RJD would form the next government in Bihar in the next month though he parried a question on whether the Lok Janshakti Party would extend support.

Referring to the projects being implemented in Jharkhand, Yadav said work on broad gauge conversion of the Ranchi-Lohardaga rail link was already complete and that it would be thrown open to traffic anytime after April 30.