Chennai: At least 70 Tamil Nadu-bound pilgrims including women, children and elderly were left stranded in Uttar Pradesh after they could not board the Sanghamitra Express train in Mughalsarai town as doors of coaches were bolted from inside, said sources. The passengers were part of a batch of 190 devotees belonging to Tiruvannamalai district of TN who were returning from Kashi Yatra.
The devotees after visiting Kashi, Prayagraj and Gaya booked reservation in the sleeper coach of Sanghamitra Express which was scheduled to depart from the Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay Junction at 11 pm on Saturday. All the passengers reached the railway station on time and stood on the platform waiting for the train.
As soon as the train arrived at the station, the TN passengers tried hard to open the doors of the coaches but the doors did not open, sources said.
It is said that the devotees had to wait at the station for 15 hours before the Railway Protection Force (RPF) arrived there and provided them food. The passengers were sent to Itarsi by Lokmanya train, from where they will be able to travel to Chennai. Recalling the harrowing experience, Laxman, who came as a guide with the devotees from Chennai, said that the train reached platform number 4 of the station at 11 pm.
Also read: Passenger trains run for convenience of people not for profit : Danve
The doors of all the coaches were closed and there were a lot of passengers in it, he said. They banged doors of other coaches including S-1, S-2, S-3, S-7, S-9 but no one opened the doors from inside. Laxman said that 120 devotees of the batch somehow boarded the AC coach, but their luggage and tickets were left behind even as 70 devotees could not board the train at all.
Laxman said that as the train started to leave, they appealed to the RPF and GRP (Government Railway Police) personnel and asked them to stop the train, but they turned them away from the train. Later a complaint was made to the station superintendent, but he too refused to help, Laxman said. It was only after the passengers tweeted about the matter and tagged the Ministry of Railways, his ticket was validated to travel by another train, Laxman said.
RPF West Post Incharge Sanjeev Kumar said that the RPF made arrangements of food for the passengers who were sent to Itarsi by Lokmanya Tilak Express at 2:30 pm on Sunday from where they will travel to Chennai. It is worth noting that this is not the first incident of passengers not being able to enter the coaches of a train.
