Sangram Committee stages protest against NF Railway

Our Special Correspondent 

SILCHAR, June 24: Members and supporters of Silchar-Lumding Broad Gauge Rupayan Sangram Committee today staged protest demonstration before the office of the Railway Area Mager at Badarpur for taking the decision to make Silchar-Bhairabi passenger train run six days in a week. There is no justification behind this move of the NF Railway as the train in question that runs upto the last rail head of Mizoram is well patronized and often crowded. Sushil Paul, convener of the Committee, at the outset, explained the very objective of the agitation programme.

 After that other members of the Sangram Committee, Ajoy Roy, convener, Santosh Mazumdar, Moloy Bhattacharjee, Sukomal Paul, Premangshu Shekhar Paul, Madhuri Sharma, Arungshu Bhattacharjee, Ranjit Ghosh, Salim Ahmed Khan, Subrata th among others spoke against the decision to wheel-jam the passenger train in question for a day instead of its daily run. Other demands have also been raised before the area mager which include arrangement for the boarding and alighting of passengers from platform no. 1 of Hailakandi station, introduction of passenger reservation system (PRS) and ticket counters, accelerating the speed of the train in the Bakrihaor area by adopting updated technology, introduction of another pair of passenger trains on Silchar-Hailakandi-Bhairabi route as well as long run trains on this rail link.

 Besides, voice has been raised for removing the mess in which Hailakandi railway station has fallen. The protest demonstration continued for three hours and ended at 12 noon. A memorandum was submitted by the members of Sangram Committee to the Area Mager, addressed to the General Mager, NF Railway, Maligaon. The memorandum cautioned if no steps were taken to mitigate the passenger grievances, Sangram Committee would chalk out plan for bigger movement.