6.39pm, Park Street station, 48 hours after the death that shook Kolkata

KOLKATA: Forty-eight hours after little magazine seller Sajal Kanjilal died a grisly death at Park Street station, TOI stood at the same paltform at the same time, trying to figure out if the passengers have learnt any lesson from the horrific accident or continue to behave recklessly, endangering their own lives as well as fellow commuters. Here’s what we saw.
As the digital clock at the Park Street station read 18:39, a Maidan-bound non-AC train chugged into the station three minutes before schedule, triggering an immediate restlessness among a set of passengers waiting at the platform. As they tried to inch towards the platform edge, six armed railway police force guards (three of them dressed in camouflage uniform) started blowing the whistle to alert them. They then requested the passengers to back off.

Even before the train could stop, passengers started to pace up and down trying to adjust themselves near the gates. The moment the gates opened, the jostling began. Everyone was in a rush to get entry into the train.
Among the passengers, TOI found one person, dressed in a pink shirt, who fell behind a group of 18 passengers who were squeezing through a door inside a Metro compartment, the third from the front compartment. As the door started closing even before the man could set his foot in, he blocked one of the doors with his right hand in an effort to get in.

Even as the doors began to close, he had his right arm stretched outside. But unlike last Saturday, the doors opened, closed and opened again, till the man could completely squeezed himself in. The motorman and the guard were also found craning their necks to ensure no one was in danger before the train chugged out of the station.
The minute-long incident showed how people continued to travel carelessly without thinking about consequences even as the inquiry into the death of Kanjilal was far from over.
“The passengers cannot duck their responsibilities. They cannot attempt to block doors and squeeze into trains while its on the run, like they do in local trains,” said a Metro official who was posted at the station on Monday.

Not all passengers were reckless though. There were some who had backed off, realizing the train was too crowded to get in and continued to wait at the station. Much to their delight, a relatively empty AC rake trailed in less than three minutes.
“We need to be careful about the way we behave in public. The death of a man at the station should be an eye-opener for everyone. We shouldn’t try to jostle into packed train and attempt to block or open the doors,” said Subhajit Dutta, a Kasba resident.