29 June,2010 07:56 AM IST | | Anshuman G Dutta
Passengers of the Ahmedabad-Delhi Rajdhani Express battle mice, mosquitoes. Train staff refuse co-operation
A few drunken train attendants, one train ticket examiner, 75 harried passengers and an army of rats, sums up the scene in bogey number B-3 of the 2957, Ahmedabad-Delhi Swarna Jayanti Rajdhani Express on Monday night.
Representative pic
By 10:50 pm when a few passengers called this correspondent, with the generous help of the TTE Rajesh Gupta, the commuters have been able to catch six live rats through a trap. Gupta could not respond when he was asked why there was a rat trap so readily available with the train staff.
"I am calling from Swarna Jayanti Rajdhani Express and we are in a deep mess right now. Please help us or every one will reach Delhi with a rat bite on our body. Our compartment is infested with rodents but the rail attendants are drunk and have refused to cooperate," said 51-year-old old businessman Satish Bansal, who was returning from Ahmedabad after a business meeting.
He called MiD DAY from his mobile phone while the train was approaching Ajmer Junction.
But it was not only the live ratsu00a0-- which while biting everything in their way, also dug their teeth in human legsu00a0-- the passengers were left chocking in the stink of dead rats, mosquitoes and other insects. Vibhor Oberoi, 29, somehow managed the courage to pick and dispose the dead rats found stuck to rat pads.
"It's funny that Rajdhani Express is using rat pads to get rid of the rodents but perhaps they don't think it's necessary to dispose off the mice after they die," he told MiD DAY.
"The TTE asked me to drop the rats on the vestibule connecting coach B3 with the neighbouring coach," said Oberoi, who works with a private firm in Delhi.
The Delhi-bound Rajdhani express left Ahmedabad junction at 5:25 on Monday evening and all the complaining passengers had booked their tickets under the Tatkal quota.
"Most of us are businessmen who are regulars between Ahmedabad and Delhi. Just an hour ago a lady was bitten by one of these rats," said Bharat Suthar, who had booked seat number 29 and 30 in the coach.
"There could be more than 150 rats for 75 people," Suthar said.
Even before the train could reach Abu Road station by 8:30 pm, the animals had bitten a couple of passengers. Anamika, 27, travelling on seat number 37 had to be shifted to another compartment after she was bitten by a mouse.
"My 46-year-old mother is seriously ill and we are going to Delhi for treatment. But she hardly got any rest on this long journey. There is not even a single train staff to take care of the passengers," said Cindrella, 22.
While the coach attendants allegedly shifted themselves to another compartment after their daily night dose of whiskey, the TTE Rajesh Gupta decided to cooperate with the agitating passengers. Gupta, however, tried to downplay the incident. "Kuch char paanch chuhe aa gaye the bas. Lekin humne sabko bhaga diya hai, abhi sab theek hai," he said before passing on the phone to another passenger.
But suddenly the chaos, which was clearly audible over the phone, turned into a heated argument between few passengers and a railway official by the name of RS Meena who refused to divulge his rank.
"We asked him to do something but he said aapko jo karna hai karo hum kuch nahi kar sakte hain," said advocate SK Sharma who practices in Supreme Court and managed to click a video of the chaos on his digital camera.
| The Other Side |
| No Northern Railway official was available tou00a0comment. |
