Open letter to Rail Minister
Honorable Sir,
I know this is lengthy but trust me it's worthy, kindly read it till the end.
I have been traveling in Mumbai locals for a long time (7+ years) and have witnessed various incidents happening on the go. I would like to share one of incident lately where I became the victim. On 6th January 2017 Friday, I boarded 8.52 am Borivali local from bhayandar, I got resistance from the group standing on the gate but still, I managed to get my foot onboard as there was space. When train started moving from bhayandar, those Gundas tried pushing me in such a manner that either I would have fallen down or would have left the train but somehow I managed that resistance as well and got into a verbal spat with those pushing me then one guy named "Amit(to what I remember)" from the group hit me on my head but I couldn't do much as he was on door and I was struggling to get in so I kept my mum and got adjusted in the train. Now when train was arriving at Borivali station, I tried asking him his name and whether they travel regularly in the same train(I know I could have averted this by keeping quiet butIi did it so that I could file a complaint against them) on that he rigorously starting hitting me along with his group and again I didn't do anything as he was standing on gate and there were chances of him falling down from the train on repercussion. So here I was getting beaten up by those well-dressed Gundas for boarding that train. They all flew away by the time train has arrived on station. I waited for everyone to get down so that I could look for my broken eyeglasses. I found them, and I moved on. This happens with someone every day & probably every hour in peak time. Later that evening I went to railway police station in bhayandar to lodge a complaint against them, they took a note of it and asked me to report the incident to Vasai Police Station and then they'll take the further action. I do have a picture of the note.
I didn't travel for the next couple of days as it was Saturday and Sunday, also my mom was hospitalized so I was running around the hospital. I went to Vasai police station on 11th January 2017 Wednesday, there they tried avoiding me and asked me that I should have done this, that and why you didn't come early, I'll have to get a witness who'll sign in my favour and Amit's statement & his witness then only complaint will be taken. I don't travel in that train regularly, I met those maniacs for the first time, how will I find a witness in this scenario?? So again, disappointed with the support I received from Vasai Police Station and they don't answer your queries.
I am not doing this to avenge myself, I am doing this so that this doesn't happen to someone like me again. So, this was the entire incident which happens frequently with someone every day during peak hours. I would like to propose two things to put an end to this "Gate Gunda Gardi"
- Replace all the open-door locals with closed door AC locals which I understand will take time, but it should apparently happen. The reason, why people form groups in a train, is to occupy gates & the self-acclaimed premium standing positions in the train, with closed doors, this won't be possible and hence this issue will be eradicated from the root.
- Meanwhile what can be done is deploy RPF everyday (except Sundays) on main railway stations like Vasai, Naigaon, Bhayandar, Mira Road, Dahisar, Borivali, Kandivali, Malad, Goregaon, Ram Mandir, Jogeshwari during morning peak hours i.e. 8am - 11am and on Dadar, Bandra, Andheri, Jogeshwari, Ram Mandir, Goregaon, Malad, Kandivali, Borivali during evening peak hours i.e. 6pm - 10pm. This will facilitate immediate help whenever an incident like this happens and with RPF in sight, these Gundas probably won't do dadagiri. Impose hefty fines when caught fighting or on receiving complaints from the victim (you can trust the victims here) thereby increasing employment opportunities as well as revenue
This was about the dadagiri, now one more thing I would like to emphasize here which is cleanliness, for which there is already a section under 198 in railways act which states that fine of Rs. 500 will be imposed on people littering railway premises, this law is already there in the system, but people aren't aware of it and few of those aware doesn't care as there is nobody who monitors and enforces this. So please promote it heavily on all stations and in trains & again you can put up the RPF on work here to monitor & collect fines and ensuring that everyone obeys this law. To tackle discrepancies or credibility of the fines collected, set up CCTVs on all the Stations, I know this is going to happen eventually. The revenues collected from fines will be huge as every hour there will be minimum of 10 people on each platform & 20 in every train littering railway premises by some or other means, so considering an consolidated average of 40 people/hour, you generate approximately Rs.20000 per hour as fines in revenue, huge isn't it??
You can multiply it with total no. of platforms available in India into 12 (working hours) into no. of trains running every hour etc. to get a clear estimate. We might not have sufficient RPF guys but we have a lot of unemployed people in our country which can be deployed for this achieving this.
A simple thing will address 3 major issues
- Unemployment
- Hygiene
- Revenue generation
Hoping I am making sense of this and this letter doesn't go unnoticed and gets some of your valuable time
Jai Hind.
No comments:
Post a Comment