Flights grounded, trains halted on track – Bandh stop fuels anger at station
Posted by barunroy on June 6, 2008
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| Passengers at Rangapani station on Thursday. Picture by Kundan Yolmo |
Siliguri, June 5: The Uttarbanga Express was detained at a small station near New Jalpaiguri for six hours this morning because of the Bengal bandh, prompting passengers to ransack the station manager’s office and manhandle railway employees.
The New Cooch Behar-bound train had arrived at Rangapani station, 7km from New Jalpaiguri, at 7am.
“There was not a single picketer on the tracks, but the train was still stopped at the station,” said Sourav Ganguly of Durgapur, who was travelling to New Jalpaiguri on his way to Gangtok. “We approached the on-duty railway employees who said until there was signal from New Jalpaiguri, the train would be detained at Rangapani.”
The absence of even the basic amenities at the station left the passengers angry and each passing hour only added to their fury.
“There was no water in the train and not even a single tea stall at the station,” said Sovan Seal of Nadia who was in the train. “We insisted that the railway employees talk to their superiors so that the train could at least be allowed to get near the New Jalpaiguri station. But they did not listen to us.”
As resentment built up among the 1,000-odd passengers and a section of them barged into station manager Ashok Sarkar’s room, broke the windowpanes, threw the furniture around and ripped off the telephone cable.
“We failed to make them understand that for some reasons, the train could not be taken to New Jalpaiguri,” Sarkar said later. “They ransacked my office and also abused and shoved me and my colleagues around.”
A senior railway official said a number of trains were detained at New Jalpaiguri because of the 12-hour strike called by the CPM against the rise in fuel prices.
Government Railway Police (GRP) officials at New Jalpaiguri confirmed that the station manager’s office at Rangapani had been ransacked.
“We came to know of the incident and rushed to the spot and brought the situation under control,” Daman Karmakar, the officer-in-charge of the New Jalpaiguri GRP, said. “An investigation is on but we are yet to receive any written complaint.”
The train reached New Jalpaiguri around 2pm, railway sources said. [The Telegraph]
