Who’ Sabotaging Whom !

Respected Didi,
Honouring my respected Didi with her glorious slogan “ Maa, Matir Manuser Jonno ” I take this privilege with the right of a mango man for my democratic India to explicitly mention my reaction to the accident at Sainthia! In reference with today’s accident at Sainthia , its premature to blame our madam didi,the Railway Mnister and also who’s an in-evident aspirant for the chief ministerial candidate for West Bengal. And it will be evil from our part if we try to play the political blame game as is done by her political rivals. So we discard any controversial statements made by the opponents in the name of political beneficial succession. But let us be a realistic Indian at least when we see the 61 peoples killed (officially unknown till now ) and try to know the real answers from the day to day affairs of railways and leave upto the minister to investigate the loop holes if any is there . As many Class-1 govt officers like me are forced to travel by train with the resolution by the central govt to save the currency, I have a got a memorable experience of travelling in Indian Railways. The incident though directly doesn’t have any resemblance with the present accident that occurred in Saithian but definitely depicts the moral of the employers of railways, their ignorant behavior to the passengers and further to the incompetence of the Railways to provide a comfortable and safe journey to the passengers when no Sabotage is caused by the Naxilites or Maoists group. Last month while travelling from Mumbai to Trivandrum through Kanyakumari Express , I arrived the railway station with a reserved II AC ticket . When I reached the station I found that the train was aborted to have II AC compartment. I started reading the ticket over and over and found that I made no mistake in reading the train number as printed on the ticket. When I started to find the TTE , i came to know that I have to wait for the last 5 mins from the departure time of the train, to converse with him. I got confused whether to wait in the same station or to move to some other platform to confirm once again whether my knowledge of mathematical numbers is correct or not. When I asked one of the coolie whether I should wait for the train to depart or I should go to search the train with the train number as printed on my ticket in some other platform, he suggested “ Yaar , life main kabhi teen chijoke piche kabhi vagna nahi chahiye – Bus, Train Aur chokhri ” but I was also not so stupid to understand that though there may be many number of trains running in Mumbai Central Station but none of them will take me to Trivandrum today . So I decided to examine my patience and kept waiting for the TTE to arrive. Then when the Big boss ( Bada Sahab as one of the Railway Attendant Saluted me to say so ) came he told that it was decided that to combine the III AC and II AC compartment together and passenger should travel in the same compartment irrespective of the class of ticket he is having. When I asked where and when it was decided, and what was the mechanism followed to inform the passenger, he showed me the watch. With no other options available with me I boarded the train. Later when Big Boss came to check my ticket with my identity proof, I asked him that am travelling the train with a II Ac ticket though I am allotted a berth in the III AC . So I requested him to certify a low class travel concession so that I can collect my balance amount from the destination station. The TTE replied with greatest proudness that he is not aware that any such forms are available with the Indian Railways where you can collect the balance . After his remarkable statement I tried to recall the rule which states that “If the ticket holder of a higher class is made to travel in a lower class for want of accommodation in the class for which the ticket was issued, refund of the difference between the fare paid and the fare payable for the class in which it is actually used shall be granted at the destination station or at the originating station”. So indeed the certification doesn’t holds good for this case as I was offered to travel in the low class not because there was no accommodation in the higher class, but because a higher class coach was not provided in the train , which was legally promised to be present while I purchased the ticket from Indian Railways . It definitely though doesn’t shows that the Railway Minister is not accountable, but there is question mark which remains unanswered. Many times after this incident I thought to claim the balance amount , but thinking the expenditure I have to bear to travel by Auto rickshaw to reach the Railway DRM’s office will be more than the refundable amount, I dropped it . Through this small incident atleast any semi –learned person like me can conclude that behind every irresponsible and ignorant behavior that a passenger travelling in train faces , there is no sabotage by any naxalities which made the Railway Department to withdraw the attachment of II AC compartment in the train. I guess Didi will agree with me in this atleast ! But today when we see incident like Saithian Railway Accident where 60 peoples are killed because of the failure of a technical system, its genuine to think that someone should be held responsible or rather someone should come forward to take the responsibility. And we know a person like Didi will definitely come forward to that which is evident from her image as and when she takes very credit to lay the foundation stone every day to start a new train in Bengal. Indeed its true a Railway Minister doesn’t check all technical fitness of a train before its starts its journey, but it is the head of the institution who builds the work culture and injects them the sense of responsibility that is promised to the society/country by the institution. Considering the recent most accidents that have occurred in the last few months, it is implied that rather than laying the foundation stone for new trains … the need of the hour is to consider the technical / safety aspects of the trains that are running on tracks without their proper fitness certification. If we compare the speed with which Indian railways run which is maximum for Rajdhani Express in range of 110-120 Km/hr at peak speed with that of the fastest train running at 300 Km/hr at China , and still we cant afford to have the safety of the passengers travelling on the trains , it’s a fact for which every Indian should be ashamed. But we honestly plea to the most responsible Minister of Railways, that we the people of India don’t want to compete the international figure of speed nor the number of trains, but we want that the Minister of Railways should act not to lay down the stones for further trains but to think about the safety aspects and the value of the life of the people. We know she is having much greater responsibility to think for the people of Bengal, for the people of Singur and for the people of Nanur , but at the same length she should not forget the greater responsibility to being an human being. Now coming to Didi’s comment about the suspicion of Sabotage by a leftist extremist seems to be quiet logical though not reasonable. A day before this incident of Sainthia when it was shown in Television channel that some cockroaches was found in Duronto Express along with the food that was served to the passengers, we didn’t found any question of sabotage .Now its true that some portion of the society takes mileage of the irresponsibility shown by certain sections . But this doesn’t means that every injustice done to the passengers, every cockroach found in food served to passengers there are some sobtage done by the leftist extremist group. So we can’t hold the umbrella of sabotage to protect the irresponsibility that is shown to the passengers travelling through trains! So its expected that our Minister will take her responsibility with the same capability as she is fighting against the communist in Bengal with full strength to give a better service to the people. Our madam will surely accept that its easy to make anti- government moves but it needs lot of courage and perseverance to state and serve a good governance. The anti-communist mentality of Bengal will surely want Didi to see in the chief Minister seat on 2011 but definitely not with the type of service she is rendering as the chief of Indian Railways, where cockroaches , irresponsible behavior and brutal killings are the outcommings in the name of Development .