Anand S.T. Das and Parul Chandra
Patna/New Delhi, June 2: Several coaches of three trains were burnt down and the safety of rail passengers severely threatened in Bihar on Monday as angry mobs led violent attacks on railway property at two stations in protest against a decision by railway officials to withdraw some halts from the route of a number of trains. These halts were reportedly ordered during the tenure of Mr Lalu Prasad Yadav as railway minister.
Angry villagers set ablaze coaches of three trains at two railway stations near Patna, the state capital, and also uprooted tracks at a number of places. At least 30 people were injured, but none of them were train passengers. The railway police and security forces tried to prevent the vandalism, which disrupted rail traffic throughout the region for hours by halting at least 10 trains.
The immediate provocation which led to the mob fury was an announcement by the East Central Railway in some newspapers that several express trains, including the Rajgir-New Delhi Shramajeevi Express and the Kosi Express, would no longer halt at Khusropur station and some other places.
Railway minister Mamata Banerjee reacted swiftly to Monday morning’s developments and reversed the decision, restoring the halts. She also ordered an immediate departmental inquiry into the decision by East Central Railway. The decision to no longer have the Shramjeevi Express halt at Khusropur led to violent protests at the railway station there on Monday, with an angry mob setting fire to a railway coach after forcing passengers to get off. The mob also set fire to the coaches of some other trains and also ransacked the railway station.
Ms Banerjee acted fast to pre-empt any move by political leaders in Bihar to take advantage of the situation and made it clear it should not be read as a "Bihar versus Mamata" controversy. She said on Monday: "Bihar is our neighbour. The people of Bengal and Bihar have been living as good friends for years together. There is no animosity between us."
On May 26 a notification had been issued by ECR that 33 stoppages (including Khusropur), which had been introduced on a temporary and experimental basis in response to public demand, were being withdrawn as they were not commercially justified. Speaking to reporters in Kolkata, Ms Banerjee said: "As railway minister I am not in favour of withdrawing any facility, and it has been done locally without the consent of the railway ministry." She said she had already spoken to Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar and informed him that there had been no directive either by her or by the railway ministry that the halt at Khusropur should be withdrawn.
Earlier on Monday, local villagers who had benefited from several trains halting at Khusropur got enraged as this privilege appeared to have been withdrawn literally within days of Lalu Prasad Yadav ceasing to be railway minister. Hundreds of villagers armed with iron rods descended on Khusropur railway station, 35 km from Patna, and torched two coaches of Shramjeevi Express and four coaches of the Danapur-Rajgir Passenger. They then set ablaze three other coaches — two general bogies and one AC chair car — of the 3226 Down Danapur-Jainagar Intercity Express at Fatuha railway station.
The protesters forced the trains to stop by sitting on the tracks and, before setting the coaches on fire, got the passengers to evacuate them. East Central Railway’s chief public relations officer A.K. Chandra said: "There has been no injury to passengers. The AC coaches are partially burnt. The fire was controlled soon. We are looking at the damage."
Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad Yadav, now getting increasingly politically isolated, lost no time in trying to take advantage of the situation. He clearly refrained from attacking Ms Banerjee or anyone in the railways, which he headed till recently, and chose to lay the entire blame on his political rival, Mr Nitish Kumar, saying the Bihar chief minister had utterly failed to check the violence at Khusropur.
The ECR authorities recently reviewed 250 train halts, including 100 unauthorised ones, introduced during Mr Lalu Yadav’s tenure as railway minister. Officials had said such a review was needed as these halts made little economic sense for the railways and posed a hurdle to the smooth running of several trains.
Ms Banerjee, in Kolkata, said: "I will not remove any existing facilities. Some people have done it to malign us. Some have spread misinformation. I heard that a local advertisement regarding withdrawal of halts has appeared without the consent of our ministry."
She indicated that responsibility will be fixed for the decision. "I am not vindictive. The railways are like a big family. But I will take action after the inquiry if anyone is found responsible."