Abandoned Rail 1

Let me accurately describe a typical style of using the Rail corridor. A Lady emerges from nearby dwellings, walks up to the side of the Corridor almost in a catwalk, holding the polythene bags in two finger-tips,  slightly away from the body, as though she has just caught hold of  an unwanted pig of Railways by its tail which she must deport. She would then flung the catch in style to let it reach its homeland. She need not bother where it lands. It has only to be away from her side of the Rail Corridor. Because her side is to be used for more important purposes such as marriages, garbas, funerals, parking vehicles, making shades for domestic animals, keeping familys' extra furniture and for conducting other community functions, so on and so forth.

Other than the stations and a few meters around them, the rest of the Rail Corridors are nearly abandoned. Till The Prime Minister talked of Toilets and Defecation free India, we all are aware, Rail Corridors were heaven for Public Defecation. Many were so much used to sitting for long evening hours till they vent out all the day's pent up emotions to their friends that the sudden call to finish this task within the confines of a smelly closed four walls was not acceptable. On insistence by Central Government the states had to willy nilly confirm that they were defecation free while at the same time they were up in arms against these visitors. They are now mostly defecation free but filled with other things so that the distinction of it being called a small hell cannot be disputed.   

Sorry, in my previous post I had promised to write about a love story, But I thought it most appropriate to write something that bothers me most. The Railways. The blog has a larger purpose of serving the nation. 

You have all seen the profile photo given in my Introductory to Rail_Fail. The Railway Corridor was full of vehicles, domestic animals, old broken furniture sacks of garbage etc. etc.. I had posted that in my twitter handle @nigamananda9 calling for action from all concerned including the PM, the CM, the Railways, the Municipal Corporation. Within two days of my posting, those places were cleared. The cleared image is placed alongside. The twitter link is given below:

https://twitter.com/nigamananda9/status/1288391430461743104?s=08

I am not sure how it happened. But it happened. Most probably because Railways is constructing the broad gauge line. The timings of it only confuses me.

I  have been keeping a watch of this patch of Railways since 2006. If I write about the negligence of both Railways and Ahmadabad Municipal Corporation in maintaining the railway line passing through the city of Ahmadabad, it will be volumes. But who has the time to read these days?

The crux of the issue is that the Railways Corridor i.e on either side of the Railway line till the barricades (Existing/non-existent/broken/dilapidated/stolen) is not considered a part of the Municipal Corporation. People living on either side of the Corridor dump whatever they can. Municipal Corporation apparently has no jurisdiction. Therefore they do not consider themselves duty-bound to clean it or keep a check on dumping. There are a number of stories on local newspapers - Municipal Corporation fined so and so with such and such amounts, issued notices to so and so, taken so and so into custody etc. for violating Swatchha Bharat guidelines. But Railway Corridor.., NO NOT AT ALL. How can they exceed their powers!!. Check this:

 https://twitter.com/nigamananda9/status/1293002729619623937?s=08

Railways, on the other hand, is magnanimous. "Come!, please do not take any trouble to put a dustbin or locate one for your garbage, we are there, why bother". If the train is able to move on the rails in between your garbage that is enough. 

I gathered that the above patch of Railway Corridor's two sides have two different Municipal Wards that is why the problem is more complicated. There is a mismatch in the way things are handled on the two sides of the Corridor. One side is managed well by placing dustbins and arranging vehicles to pick up etc.. The other side is entirely a different matter. It is a under a different ward. Here encroachment on the properties of Municipal Corporation and Railways, use of these Corridors for unlawful commercial activities are rampant 

Imagine, there are children born and brought up there. They have spent their entire childhood there not knowing so far that they were there because of some gross negligence by some Government Authorities abated by local politicians and corrupt officials. Now you tell them "Sorry, you have to get out/vacate". They would take that as injustice. Municipal Corporation is building some flats nearby to shift people on the encroached land. It is, you bet, nothing but appeasement. You may see some yellow structures in the back side of the attached image. These are actually permanent structures made for this purpose. They may move there, but with a grudge. They are so used to living where they are now that you will find them crowding the corridor for other purposes, and this time with a grudge. Because you have displaced them. First you permit. Then one fine day you decide to use your authority to dethrone them. How unjustified it is. This is true of all encroachments. The ward inspectors, the Municipal authorities do not do anything when the encroachment starts. They only intervene when they have to.  

 Similarly, Railway Authorities look aside when the misuse starts. By the time they decide to strike, it is late. The issues are abandoned only to become hazards. Just imagine the polythene bags they flung to the "No Man's Land" dries up under the scorching sun and fly all over in the evening breeze. Kudos to Railways, Kudos to Municipal Corporation. You both only need to close your eyes to appear wise. 

I would describe sometimes how, for the nuisance going on I had to file an FIR with Railway Police. How some 14 people were arrested and later released with a fine. How all hell broke loose on that day  etc. etc. Please follow the blog for more..... The promised Love Story will of course not be delayed any more.

Important Happenings:

The Railways have decided to run private trains from Mumbai, in a move towards privatization.https://mumlive.co/vxJSHHR

There are 23 firms in fray to run special trains in India. 

https://www.livemint.com/news/india/23-cos-in-fray-to-run-private-trains-cos-will-be-allowed-to-lease-trains-11597241042411.html

Rail Land Development Authority (RLDA), a statutory body under Ministry of Railways, has invited online bids for developing Railway Land at Howrah

https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/business/real-estate/rlda-invites-online-bids-for-developing-railway-land-at-howrah-west-bengal-5697721.html