Bihar: Battered by thirst and hunger, Shramik train passengers loot water bottles at Samatipur Railway Station

Patna: Migrant workers, who were onboard a Darbhanga-bound Shramik Special train from Kurla, allegedly looted mineral water bottles kept at the Samastipur Railway Station on Wednesday.

The incident took place at around 3:20 pm when Shramik Special train number 01897 arrived at Samastipur Railway Station.

The train departed from Kurla at 11 pm on May 22. It took around 5 days to reach Samastipur in Bihar, located around  1981 km away from the point of origin. Usually, it takes 36 hours to reach there bu the train was rerouted from Chappra. The migrants were served meals only at Kurla, Itarsi and Jabalpur Railway Station.

While narrating their harrowing ordeal, the migrants said that the Shramik train arrived at Chappra Railway Station on Tuesday evening. they thought that soon they would reach home. However, it was rerouted diverted from Chappra to Varanasi and then to Mugalsarai. From Mugalsarai, it reached Samastipur via Patna and Sonepur.

The passengers claimed that they were not provided food or water for the last 24 hours. The condition became unbearable for them, especially for women and children. As the train arrived at Samastipur Railway Station, the migrants disembarked from the train and created a ruckus. When nobody responded to their distress call, they allegedly looted water bottles kept at the vends at the railway platform.

Meanwhile, senior DCM of Samastipur Railway Division Saraswati Chand dismissed all reports of the occurrence of the incident. He stated that because of heavy traffic, the arrivals of trains have been delayed but as far as providing food and water to the onboard passengers is concerned, Railways was doing it with punctuality.

Reports of several other similar incidents have surfaced recently. Such incidents are becoming a matter of embarrassment for the Railways.