KOLKATA: As the protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act continue to rage in Bengal, along with the rest of the country, people from
Assam — where the agitations had started — are stuck in Kolkata due to non-availability of train and flight tickets.
Professor Sajid Borbora, who came to the city on December 11 with 14 students and a woman professor, had to book train tickets at least thrice. Borbora’s team from Jhanji Hemchandra Sharma College in Assam’s Sivasagar district visited Digha and was scheduled to take a train to Howrah on December 14. But the train was cancelled. “We then took a bus to Howrah. On the way, we were stopped three times by protesters. My students, including 11 girls, were very scared. We could smell the smoke from burning tyres,” Borbora said.
“When we finally reached Howrah station at 4.15pm, the Saraighat Express had left. We then went to Assam House and booked tickets for December 15,” he said.
“This time, we reached the station by 3pm, but were informed that the train had been cancelled. We didn’t even get a text from the Railways to intimate us about the same. The same happened on December 16. Now, we are not getting confirmed tickets. The waiting list queue has crossed 438 and it doesn’t seem like we will get any ticket till Friday. Flights are not an option for us,” Borbora said, adding, “The students are out of money. I am trying to fund our stay. But it’s getting tougher each day.”
Another visitor from Assam, Babul Kr Baruah from Jorhat, came to Kolkata with his family — wife and two kids aged 3 and 6 — on December 8. They were scheduled to return on December 13, but have been stuck due to train cancellations.
“The biggest problem was that we got to know about the cancellation after we reached the station. We had checked out of our room. When we returned to Assam House, there was no vacancy. We had to take up beds in the dormitories. The situation is getting really difficult since we have overshot our budget,” said Baruah, a journalist with a local daily. “The prices of flight tickets are also sky-high,” he added.
Baruah was at Howrah station with his family, hoping to board a train to Assam when TOI spoke to him on Wednesday.