Central Railway (CR) authorities on Friday sought a detailed report on the agitation by a section of employees at Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT) a day earlier, which disrupted train services for nearly an hour and caused heavy overcrowding when operations resumed, news agency PTI reported.
Near Sandhurst Road Railway Station, around 7 pm, some time after services resumed, two persons died and three were injured after alighting from a crowded train and being hit by another train.
On Thursday evening, the employee unions of CR staged a demonstration outside the divisional railway manager’s office at CSMT, demanding the quashing of a first information report (FIR) against the engineers involved in the June 9 Mumbra train tragedy, in which five passengers had lost their lives.
Due to the agitation at the CSMT lobby, no trains departed from the busy station during peak hours from 5.50 pm to 6.45 pm. Crowds swelled at Mumbai’s suburban stations, and many passengers were forced to walk on the tracks to reach the nearest stations.
The unions argued that the FIR should be quashed, claiming the Mumbra accident occurred due to overcrowding rather than technical or operational faults.
In the Mumbra incident, two trains—one bound for Kasara and the other for CSMT—passed each other at a sharp curve, when commuters standing on the footboards fell onto the tracks after their backpacks brushed against each other, according to police.
Following a probe, the Thane Railway Police recently booked a senior section engineer and a section engineer of Central Railway under Section 125(a)(b) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (acts endangering life or personal safety of others).
CR Chief Public Relations Officer Swapnil Nila told PTI that a detailed report has been sought about the protest by railway employees at CSMT.
However, incensed commuters said officials and those behind the flash strike must be prosecuted for the hardships caused.
Upanagariy Railway Pravasi Ekata Sanstha (Mahasangh) on Friday wrote to the CR administration, demanding that responsibility be fixed for the deaths of the two passengers at Sandhurst Road, PTI reported. It also sought a judicial probe into the Mumbra incident.
Taking to social media platform X, advocate and commuter Kanchan Ghanshani described the railway employees’ protest at CSMT as “unlawful” and demanded the resignation of the CR general manager and the divisional railway manager of Mumbai division.
“The Railway Police station at CSMT, Mumbai, must also register an FIR under the relevant criminal laws, including the Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA), against the employees responsible for halting train operations,” she wrote on X.
Railway union leaders, however, said their protest was outside the divisional railway manager’s office, and that the sit-in outside the motormen and guard lobby was a spontaneous action by some employees.
During an informal interaction with mediapersons at CSMT, Dr Praveen Bajpai, president of CR Mazdoor Sangh (CRMS), said, “Our members agitated outside the Divisional Railway Manager’s office, but after dispersal from there, some agitated employees held a sit-in outside the motormen lobby. Our members neither stopped trains nor did we stop employees from performing their duties. We did not stop anyone. The Rail Roko was not our agitation. Our agitation was only limited to gate meetings and demonstrations.”
Passenger association members and activists stated that they were not allowed to meet CR General Manager Vijay Kumar, as the Railway Protection Force (RPF) blocked the entry gates to the headquarters complex. Some of them, however, managed to meet DRM Hiresh Mina.
(With PTI inputs)
