Mumbai Rail Roko: Yet another strike, catches authorities napping

Mumbai: It was a usual morning on Central Railways when out of the blue hundreds of students appeared from nowhere, squatted on the tracks and sent suburban and long distance services for a toss.

The mayhem continued for more than three hours on the Dadar-Matunga stretch as RPF personnel stood watching from the side lines, twiddling their thumbs. The authorities had been caught napping yet again; just last week they had failed to anticipate the farmers’ stir. What seemed to be an impromptu strike with no student leader in sight had been clearly planned in advance. Also some thought had gone into the concerted action which coincided with the Ola and Uber strike.

Among the squatters were 400 to 500 students from several states, who have done apprenticeship with the Indian Railways and want permanent jobs now. Many of the commuters, who were stranded for hours in trains which bore the brunt of the agitation, later alighted from the coaches and were seen walking along the tracks. Some even took to the social media to express their woes.

Also Read: Mumbai Rail Roko Protest: Students are protesting on tracks; read to know why and what are their demands

The RPF and the Mumbai police had to finally use mild force to disperse the agitating students at Matunga. The protestors, in turn, retaliated by stoning them; 11 personnel of the GRP and RPF suffered injuries. Meanwhile, behind the scene efforts were on to talk to the agitators and remove them from the tracks. All the four lines (the Up and Down fast and slow lines) were affected between Matunga and CSMT, said a senior CR official.

The students lamented that there had been no recruitment for the last four years and that they had been running from pillar to post. Ten students had also committed suicide, it was claimed. “We will not budge from here until and unless Railway Minister Piyush Goyal comes and meet us.  Our several prayers made to DRM (Divisional Railway Manager) include the absorption of successful students in the Railways, and scrapping of the GM quota,” said one of the students.

The protestors finally relented at 10.35 am after they were given an assurance of sorts by Goel. He said it is a matter to be resolved by the Railway Board. “We have asked the students to meet the concerned officials in the Board. Till now the Act allowed only apprenticeship; however, we are considering their demand to reserve 20 per cent jobs in the Railways. We will call them for a discussion in two days,” said S K Jain, Divisional Railway Manager, Mumbai division (CR).

According to senior railway officials, there is no provision for giving jobs to the apprentices under the Apprentice Act. They are only given training for a specific period for improving their skills and some experience of field work. The impact of the agitation was felt on the main arteries leading to the city; there was heavy traffic on the Eastern and the Western Express highway, as well as SV Road leading towards Bandra.

The agitation disrupted the entire Central Railway local train schedule, impacting the lives of office-goers, dabbawalas and students. BEST announced it would deploy 115 additional services to help the stranded passengers and office-goers. These services catered mostly to Kurla, Ghatkopar and Mulund stations.

All day the seemingly impromptu agitation and its invisible leadership was the talk of the city. Incidentally, the first person to reach the spot to pacify the protestors was Sandeep Deshpande of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena party. After the protest was called off, Raj Thackeray held a meeting with the students. It is now emerging, Thackeray is the one who instigated the students. The students had, in fact, originally planned to meet the railway officials. However, on Monday night a few members of the MNS met the students and told them to make theoir agitation more forceful by squatting on the tracks.

“We did not want to protest on the tracks; however, a few members of the MNS called on us on Monday night. They prevailed upon the majority to participate in the agitation which would bring the city to a grinding halt. It was not our plan to come out on the railway tracks and create problems for other commuters. We had initially decided to merely speak with Railways authorities and press for permanent jobs,” said one of the students who did not participate in the protest on the tracks.