Railwaymen fight it out, passengers pay the price

KOLKATA: Angry passengers have done it before. Now it was the turn of railway employees — all of them union members — to hold up a train for over two hours.
Trouble broke out around three in the afternoon when the empty 1159 Up Howrah-Gwalior Chambal Express pulled into Howrah station’s Platform No.10.
Among the passengers waiting to entrain were 300 members of the North-Central Railwaymen’s Union who had come to the city to attend the All-India Railwaymen’s Federation convention.
When they discovered that only two coaches had been reserved for them, they demanded that two more be added so they could return comfortably to Allahabad.
“The union leaders had asked for two coaches on Wednesday and another two for Thursday. So, two extra coaches were attached with the train,� said a senior Eastern Railway officer.
When the railways turned down the request for two more coaches, some 100 union members jumped on to the tracks and started raising slogans against the Howrah divisional railway manager.
Later, a delegation led by union general secretary R.D. Yadav met senior station manager at Howrah, V. Prasad, to work out a solution. Finally, it was agreed that two more coaches would be added to the Bombay Mail on Wednesday evening.
But all this took two hours. And all the while, passengers — women, children, and the aged — waited helplessly at Platform No.10.