Bugs and roaches spark passenger revolt at kurla

n early morning drama at Lokmanya Tilak Terminus, passengers refuse to travel in AC coaches full of creepy-crawlies; force Central Railway authorities to replace the compartments

Preety Acharya

     

Posted On Thursday, July 22, 2010 at 07:41:10 AM

A passenger revolt prevented a long-distance train from chugging out of Kurla’s Lokmanya Tilak Terminus early on Wednesday. The Saket Express, which was to start its 1,505-km, two-day journey from Mumbai to Faizabad in Uttar Pradesh at 5.20 am, could proceed only two hours later, after Central Railway authorities were forced to replace two filthy, bug-ridden air-conditioned coaches with new, cleaner bogies. What angered the passengers most was that, despite paying a lot more to get a seat in the AC compartments so that they could travel comfortably, they were greeted by cockroaches and bugs on the berths on which they would sit and sleep for two days, on dashboards where they would eat their food, and in stinking toilets they would be forced to use. Passengers had two choices - grumble a bit or revolt. These passengers chose the second option. Some of them went and stood in front of the train. The others stormed the offices of the CR staff. The CR officers said they would get the compartments cleaned. Nothing doing, said the passengers. They stood their ground, demanding the two bogeys must be replaced. Nothing less would do. Changing of bogeys just can’t happen, the CR staff told the passengers, who dared the authorities to move the train even an inch. Sensing the entire schedule getting disarrayed, the matter going out of hand, the fear of the media landing up at the station, CR authorities bowed to the demand and got the compartments replaced. Irfan Shaikh, a passenger, said, “We pay more to buy AC compartment tickets to travel in comfort. But one look at the compartment and you would think it’s a public toilet! All passengers stood united and refused to travel in such inhuman conditions.” Shaikh added, “The railway staff realised we have had enough. Many of us have been traveling to UP from this terminus for a long time, and conditions here are just pathetic, both on the platforms and on the trains. Today (Wednesday), we had decided we won’t let the train move if they don’t change the compartments. Our journey be damned.” Indeed, hygiene complaints are nothing new at the Tilak terminus. From time to time, politicians visit this terminus after a protest or an altercation between passengers and the railway staff, but nothing has come out of numerous such visits. Central Railway had to admit there was a problem. Shriniwas Mudgerikar, chief public relation officer, Central Railway, said, “The Saket Express was delayed as bugs were noticed by the passengers in two AC coaches. The train departed after the coaches were replaced. Now, the cleaning of coaches has been intensified and pesticides are being used.”