Anti Agnipath rail disruptions: Septuagenarian dies in AP, baby girl is born in UP

An ailing man died, while a woman gave birth to a girl child while travelling in two separate incidents on Saturday amid disruption of train services due to nationwide protests against the newly framed 'Agnipath' employment scheme in tri-services.

Vizianagaram/Ghazipur: An ailing man died on a train stopped due to protests against the Centre's new Agnipath scheme in Andhra Pradesh's Vizianagaram district on Saturday. The victim, identified as Jogesh Behera (75), a resident of Nahupada of Odisha's Kalahandi district, was a heart patient.

He fell ill when he was traveling by the Korba-Visakhapatnam Express which came to a halt at Kottavalasa Junction due to the protests. As his health condition deterioration, the family tried all means which were in vain to move the patient to Visakhapatnam, which was about 50 km away.

After a while, the family moved him to a hospital in the vicinity where he died not responding to the treatment. Sources said the septuagenarian could have survived if he was taken to a tertiary care hospital in Visakhapatnam as planned by the family earlier. However, they could not find any ambulance service for the same.

In Uttar Pradesh's Ghazipur district, a woman gave birth to a baby girl after their travel was disrupted. Train no. 13258 Down Danapur-Anand Vihar Express was delayed by seven hours, waiting for the protest to end. It was stopped at Zamania Railway Station when the child was delivered inside the bogey.

The couple - Gudiya Devi (28), and her husband Pramod Laya, is from Maharana in Bihar's Banka district were heading towards Patna when they welcomed the new member of their family mid-way. The newborn and her mother were taken to the local Primary Health Centre for health care.

On Saturday, mobs set ablaze Taregana railway station in Bihar during a bandh and vandalised Ludhiana railway station in Punjab, as protesters continued to target railway properties on the fourth day of the stir and blocked roads and rail tracks in several states including West Bengal, Haryana, Rajasthan, Odisha and Uttar Pradesh.

Railways cancelled 369 trains on Saturday and passengers faced a harrowing time. Over 200 trains were cancelled a day earlier after the railways faced the brunt of the protests. The agitation also spread to the southern states of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala, with aspirants doing push-ups on roads at some places to register their protest.