High revenue-earning Rajhara station lacks amenities

Rajhara railway station is the only station falling in the district of Palamu which sends minerals like sand and coal outside. According to an RPF constable, Ajit Kumar, coal rake originates every day from Rajhara railway station which fetches Rs 25 lakh for the railways and that way the monthly revenue coming from coal here is Rs 7.50 crore. Revenue coming from sand is equally too good he said.

But this Rajhara railway station languishes too badly like other stations Chiyanki and Kajree. Platform number 2 at Rajhara railway station is all kachha. There is no concrete slab or brick soling even.  Platform number 1 has concrete pathway. During rainy times here passengers have a deadly fear of slip on platform number 2 because of the slush arising out of rains then.

Unlike Chiyanki and Kajree railway stations this Rajhara railway station boasts of a public address system where the arrival and departure of the trains is well announced. Other amenities are most wanting. In the name of drinking water there are tube wells only, no pipe supply water. There is no tea stall here.

This multi-crore revenue earning railway station per month is still a railway line platform which means passengers are to climb into the bogie by stepping on the trains’ staircases.  Had there been a high level platform here passengers would not have to struggle to board/ come down from the trains.

BJP MP V D Ram said sources have not bothered for the elevation of the platforms of this high revenue earning railway station.

Daily ticket sale here is between 2,800 to 3,000 rupees but for passengers there is nothing. There are more than half a dozen sheds here on two platforms here but these sheds look like one for the cattle as down below the sheds are cemented benches which can accommodate 8 passengers only taking both sides of the benches.

‘Banjaras’ ( nomadic tribes) here make the most of platform number 2 when on Tuesday February 27 these Banjaras had their precious herbs drying up right on platform number 2 and passengers took care not to step on these herbs!

At Kajree railway station cattle grazing was spotted and here at Rajhara herbs were being dried up on platform number 2.  The Banjaras Balam Vanvasi, Sohan Vanvasi and others said at Rajhara 16 Kms away from Daltonganj that they have retrieved these herbs from the beds of the rivers and they sell these herbs in Varansi for 30 rupees a Kg. 

Notably, former officiation Station master of the Station said that Palamu’s sand goes to Ayodhya and the sand contractor is a man from Muslim community.  According to sources Palamu’s sand is of high quality and hence sand storage is up in Ayodhya for making use of it in the construction of a massive temple there.