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| Broad Gauge and Metro Tracks |
Today open defecation has taken a beating. But take a look at the picture attached. Apart from that the Railway corridors are used today for dwelling, dumping garbage, doing business of garbage recycling, parking vehicles, dumping old furniture, housing domestic animals, conducting community functions, Garbas in Gujarat, drying fish, drying logs for fuel, for housing migrant labourers so on and so forth. There will be much more purposes for which the railway corridors are used. The picture sends a message that the Railway property belongs to everyone. It is public property. Most of the dwellings you find are bang on the Railway property. Never ever anyone in the public thinks of protecting the property. They only see how best they can make use of it for their own benefit.
The whole trouble is it affects the life of other law-abiding and tax paying citizens living near railway tracks. Imagine, you are living on one side and on the other side people come and do all sorts of dirty things on the tracks. It pollutes the environment, spreads diseases, creates an ecosystem for breeding flies, mosquitoes and other insects. These messengers of disease then fly to your houses to unsettle you.
Once I decided to take up this matter. I prepared letters with photographs and sent them to the DRM of the concerned Division of Railways. I wrote to the Municipal Corporation, I wrote to the Health Department of Government of Gujarat. Absolutely nothing happened. The Municipal Commissioner happened to know me personally. I was his senior in the University of Delhi but in different departments. The next day a huge contingent of Municipal Corporation employees reached my apartments They earmarked the area on the railway line just in front of my apartment. They then worked really very hard. They cleaned thoroughly and then disinfected the earmarked portion. Some women staff worked so hard that I felt highly obliged to them and gave away some money while leaving. After two to three days the whole place returned back to its earlier look.
I decided to try with the Railway Protection Force stationed nearby. I met the In-charge of the RPF establishment. After patiently listening to me, he asked me to file an FIR. I felt if that is all that is required to discipline these people and to improve the environment I would file an FIR. Little did I realise that the FIR would lead to a threat to the life of my whole family.
A day after the FIR was filed, very early in the morning I heard a lot of noise coming from the Railway line. Suddenly some vehicles came and took away whomsoever they found on the Railway corridor. I got a confirmation that they took away 14 persons with them to the Station. There he prepared the case papers and then took the prisoners to the Railway Police at the Main Railway Station of Ahmedabad. The 14 people were fined with Rs.1,000/- each. They were also required to sign undertakings that they will not henceforth live on Railway Property and in case they were found there once again, then they may be sent to face a jail term of one month.
The whole day passed peacefully. The whole drama unfolded the moment these 14 offenders returned. They had the information that the FIR was filed by me. I was not aware about what was going on. Suddenly a few people came and knocked on my door. They told me that there were about 200 people waiting outside my apartment with stones and sticks. They were to attack. But this delegation had decided to discuss with me before they allowed the crowd to go ahead. I escorted two of them into my house. These two persons once again repeated the same threat to me. I only told them that I had no clue about their going to jail and personally I had no enmity with any of them. I only wanted the area to improve and wanted Railway to do something about it. I never thought that this is the way they would do. They were not satisfied. The delegation insisted that I come down and face the crowd. My wife was at home. She was very concerned. I told her not to worry and decided to face the crowd. I have faced public complaints of similar crowds in my banking career. The only big difference in this case was that the complainants I was going to face at that time were armed. Standing in front of the crowd I only told them that if anything happened to me that would seriously affect the entire crowd and especially the 14 arrested persons. Aftr hurling lot of abuses at me they decided to pull back.
Next day they sent a message to me through some mediators that if the apartment people really were well intentioned they should pay the fine amount of Rs.14,000/ taken away by Railways. I called a meeting of the members of the apartment and most of them agreed to pay. I only told the rioters to show me the vouchers for confirmation. From these vouchers I made a list of the 14 persons for my use. Then I prepared a letter which I named as "Aman Patra" inspired by all those Aman exercises India is doing with Pakistan and asked them to sign and return to me the duly signed Aman Patra to collect the money. They did not agree to sign. I did not want to do it for free. It remained there. Some of the rioters said that this fellow would put us to more trouble if we signed. That is it.
The RPF Officer met me on the Road after a few days while he was going on duty. I told him the whole ordeal. He only said if you want to take up these tasks like an activist you should be prepared for such Mobs.
My God!
Important Recent Happenings in Railfail
It tskes courage to stand up and try to change the system. That too the system where people take pride in breaking law. Where more powerful a person is, least does he care for law. Where powerful officers of state oppress the citizens without any fear of law.
ReplyDeleteIt requires even more courage to share such personal experience in public.
The author deserves accolades on writting this blog honestly.
Thank you for your kind words.
DeleteIt is indeed an act of courage. The public property anywhere is being abused by some people under the patronage of some of the law keepers and the local goons who make a living out of the extortions extracted from them. We have a long way to go before things are set right.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for expressing a feeling which I carry.
ReplyDeleteThis situation prevails along the railway line every where particularly near town/cities. They are voters and protected by the political leaders.Delhi ,Mumbai ..... Everywhere. Bengal is worst I think in this matter. It takes lots of muscle power and money to deal with this type of situations.😐
ReplyDeleteWhat I personally feel is whether they happen to be from china are India, our own territories need to be protected. If you don't show the fear of ruthless action they will first nibble and if no one is telling anything they occupy. We therefore need an aggressive RPF and in adequate strength to protect the railway corridors.
DeleteIt is act of extreme guts and courage,Nigamananda. I could visualise the trauma you had to face when the mob attacked you. While I appreciate your undaunting spirit, you need to be little more cautious in taking up such things.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading the blog and because of my comments on twitter people contacted m from various places. Finally RPG team came from Gandhi gram station. They removed a lot of nuisance. Now they are patrolling also. The RPF in-charge is in touch with me. I have a lot to do. I am already 65. How many years I will live. Why to live with fear? I am avoiding unnecessary trouble.
DeleteYour name comes here as unknown. Please let me know about you.
Thank you Pulak da. Those days were difficult. Even now some children talk "isne mera papa ko jail me dala tha na?" I am facing this. But the nuisance that used to be there when I was at Mumbai is no more there. Still a lot needs to be done. I am working on them. God willing I will see some wonderful results too.
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