Unruly scene at Rangiya Rly Station

RANGIYA, Jan 3 – A scene of massive protest and vandalism including assault of a railway assistant station master (ASM) and ransacking of the ASM office by irate train passengers was witnessed at the Rangiya Railway Station this morning following detention of the 701 Up Manas-Rhino passenger train for nearly an hour at the station. According to reports, after its usual arrival at the Rangiya station this morning, the 701 Up Manas-Rhino passenger train was reportedly stopped at the station for nearly an hour as per the directive of the railway authority to facilitate crossing/track clearance for the Dn Rajdhani Express.

This irked the passengers on board the said train as most of them were either government employees or worked in different establishments in Guwahati and were getting late for work.

The situation worsened and hundreds angry passengers came down from the train and ransacked the ASM office breaking window panes, damaging furniture and other railway properties. The mob even allegedly assaulted the ASM. The angry mob later got down on the railway tracks at the station and obstructed the movement of other trains for nearly two hours till 11 this morning.

The angry passengers calmed down only when senior railway officials arrived at the site and assured non-occurence/non-repetition of such prolonged detention of trains in future.

Railway sources said the incident occurred due to the instruction of the Senior Divisional Opearting Manager, who directed his chief operating staff to detain the passenger train.

Most of the passengers blamed the sheer negligenge of the railway authorities for such untoward incidents. They gave due significance only to the Rajdhani Express, goods trains and other express and mail trains at the cost of loss of valuable time of those travelling by passenger trains.