Cops, students clash in Ranaghat

RANAGHAT/KOLKATA: A mob comprising mostly students clashed with police at Ranaghat station on Tuesday afternoon after a power failure brought train services to a halt for over one hour. Police fired five rounds in the air and lobbed tear-gas shells to quell the mob.
Overhead power supply tripped around noon at the station because of the incessant rain.A Down Santipur local- carrying a large number of students to examination centres for their optional English paper- was detained at Ranaghat. All services between Ranaghat and Chakdah were affected.
Railway staff at the station was unable to announce when the train services would resume. Restless passengers lost their cool around 12.35 pm even as railway employees were busy repairing the fault.
The agitated mob swelled as local residents joined them and started pelting stones at local trains. They continued to do so even after power supply resumed at 1.14 pm.
When Government Railway Police posted at the station intervened, the mob clashed with them. When a lathicharge failed to restore order, police lobbed tear-gas shells. Sources said that five rounds were also fired in the air by the outnumbered policemen. This was denied by senior officers though.
The violence was finally brought under control around 2.45 pm after reinforcements were rushed to the station to assist the GRP men. By that time, three EMU rakes had been damaged.
"There was nothing we could do as power in the overhead wires tripped. Our men went to work immediately and restored supply in an hour. The agitation continued even after this. The mob stopped movement of trains in the Ranaghat-Krishnagar, Ranaghat-Santipur and Ranaghat-Bongaon sections. A number of passengers were inconvenienced. Fortunately, nobody was injured," a senior Eastern Railway officer said in Kolkata.
Nadia district magistrate Onkar Singh Meena has directed the Ranaghat subdivisional police officer to inquire into the matter.
Kalyani University officials said that nearly 3,000 students were unable to take the examination due to the snag and the agitation.
A re-examination will be held in the first week of July for those who could not reach their centres on Tuesday, university official Pradip Karuri said. The exact date will be announced later, he said.