Rlys callousness puts pilgrims in trauma.
Representational image. (Picture Courtesy: File photo)
Chennai: Lying on the shabby floor of a railway station on a freezing night even without a toilet in the vicinity to attend calls of nature was the last thing 65-year-old Thennammal from Theni had imagined experiencing when she started her long dreamt pilgrimage to Kasi last week.
Sadly, all those nightmares came true when Thennammal along with 64 others, mostly peers, arrived at Mughalsarai station in biting cold on the evening of December 19 only to be denied entry into Sanghamithra Express they had booked tickets in. Unable to communicate in Hindi, even the policemen and a few local railway staff they approached also turned their backs on them.
“We had valid reserved tickets. When we approached the train, we found the sleeper compartments locked from within. It was fully occupied by youngsters who had boarded in the previous stations.
We shouted and knocked at the doors repeatedly, but there was no response from the passengers. Even the station officials who were watching everything from a distance did not come to our help,’ 65-year-old K. Thennammal told Deccan Chronicle.
“The police who arrived after a while were not ready to act even after we pleaded with them to open the doors,” she recalled. Left with no option, the perturbed pilgrims from rural Madurai and Theni gave up and lay on the floor of the station on a chill night till the next morning when they finally managed to board Gaya-Egmore Express to return home.
“The station did not have a toilet even. We should have boarded the train at 8.30 pm on Saturday, but we started from a train at 8.45 am the next day. I will never forget those sleepless 12 hours in the station, ” she said in a dejected tone.
“Most of the women must be above 60. No one could communicate in Hindi. Their agent was largely missing. They were completely helpless,” said Syed Ali Mujtaba, a freelancer based in Chennai who had travelled from Vijayawada to Chennai with the pilgrims in the same coach.
The tour operator, S. Ramalingam of Chennai, refused to comment when Deccan Chronicle contacted him. Railway officials said they would inquire into the matter and
take steps to prevent recurrence of such incidents.
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( Source : deccan chronicle )
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