People suffer amid the bone chilling cold as railway authorities are paying no heed bogeys’ brokenwindowpanes. They have not been replaced since months.
|| AADIL ISHTIYAQ
The much hyped train services in Kashmir are irking the common masses as they complain the scarcity of basic facilities during the travel. Peoples’ huge rush, dearth of staff, broken window panes are giving tough time to the claims earlier made by the government to make the inter-district travel in Kashmir ‘hassle free’. People suffer amid the bone chilling cold as railway authorities are paying no heed bogeys’ broken windowpanes. They have not been replaced since months. People say travel by train is no longer a hassle free journey in Kashmir.
They complain of the windowpanes which according to them are broken with cold waves sending shiver donw the spine of every person inside the train. A citizen journalist, Mushtaq Ahmad narrates his ordeal of travelling by the train in Kashmir. He says if you have travelled by the sleeper class in trains or the non-ac seater cars during the winters in North-India, you would have experienced the very bitter chilly air that finds routes from the spaces below the windows. That bitterly cold air that does not allow one to sleep the whole night. Add to that a broken window-pane and one curses the authorities for negligence. “Now keep that bitter cold in your imagination and triple its intensity with the chilly air of the winter Kashmir. Top that up with broken window-panes throughout the train bogeys and now imagine the plight of the thousands of commuters who use the inter-district train in Kashmir valley.” Mushtaq goes on further saying , the valley train was started with much fanfare in 2008 and is now in a shambles.
People say travel by train is no longer a hassle free journey in Kashmir. They complain of the windowpanes which according to them are broken with cold waves sending shiver donw the spine of every person inside the train.
The trains are running with broken windows, torn seats and some of them do not have back rests either. In july this year, some miscreants broke the windows. Some officials say that it was due to suffocation during the Id rush and commuters broke them from within and others maintain that this was caused by stone-pelting. July is far behind us now and Northern Railways can atleast consider the plight of the women carrying small babies with them. Even the stronger elders fall sick, what to speak of the infants.
“It is my humble request to the Northern railway authorities to kindly look into the matter and have these trains fixed for the comfort of commuters.” Mean while scores of passengers who shutter each day from one district to another via the train hail the services being rendered by the Government Railway Police (GRP), saying though there are immense hard ships being witnessed during the travel but the services provided by GRP are laudable . Several others said that the general masses create chaos while boarding the train but the Railway staff manages the entropy in a bid to ensure hassle free travel.
“Now keep that bitter cold in your imagination and triple its intensity with the chilly air of the winter Kashmir. Top that up with broken windowpanes throughout the train bogeys and now imagine the plight of the thousands of commuters who use the inter-district train in Kashmir valley.”
