Shahid Ansari
Mumbai : Indian Railways receives the highest revenue from Mumbai. But Indian Railways has a laid back approach towards Mumbaikars. Last year, after the stampede at Elephiston Road Station, 23 people lost their lives. And many passengers were injured.
Mumbai’s local train is its Life Line. Every day more than one crore passengers travel by it. Trains in Mumbai are overcrowded, due to which the passengers risk their lives and travel hanging on the door of the train or standing by it. Due to this, on average, 10 to 12 passengers die falling off / are crushed under the train. Many injured passengers lose their lives as they aren’t given any medical help on time. The main reason for this is that the injured passengers are not lifted up from the tracks on time in the first place.
Railway Administration has not appointed any hamal or employee to lift injured or dead bodies of railway passengers from the tracks on suburban railway stations of Mumbai. Such information has been received under the Right to Information Act.
RTI activist Shakeel Ahmed Sheikh had sought information on how many employees / hamals have been appointed at the Central Railway and Western Railway stations to lift up the injured passengers and dead bodies. In this context, the information officer of the Railway Administration Narmeshwar Jha has provided some information. According to the which, no special staff has been appointed to carry a dead person or injured passenger out of the track, in case of an accident at the suburban stations. In case of such an accident, the concerned station master takes help from local hamal and voluntary servants.
It may be noted that, in 2017, 3014 passengers died due to falling off or were crushed by local trains in Mumbai, in 2017. Also 3345 cases of casualties were reported. A total of 1534 passengers have died and 1435 were injured in Central Railway. In the west suburban railway, a total of 1086 passengers died and 1540 were injured. And in the Harbor suburban railway, 394 passengers died and 370 casualties were reported.
According to RTI activist Shakeel Ahmed Sheikh, the station concerned seeks help of Master Nasheedi and Gardulo during any accident. The question is whether Nasheedi and Garaldo are drunk themselves. Can the injured passengers get treatment at the right time, with the help of Nasheedi and Gardalo? Because there is no whereabouts of these Naushidas and Gadillo. It takes a lot of time to find them. Due to which the injured passenger is not transported to the hospital on time. And in some case the passengers die. In this context, Shakeel Ahmed Sheikh has written a letter to Railway Minister Piyush Goyal and Railway Board Chairman Ashwani Lohani seeking immediate appointment of special employee or license holder, Hamal, to get injured person dead on the accident at all railway stations.
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