Unhappy with his seat allotment, Shiv Sena MLA holds up train for an hour
As a result, nine other outstation trains were delayed and seven local services were cancelled.
Mumbai: In a glaring example of a neta throwing his weight around without thought to the inconvenience caused to public, a MLA on Wednesday night held up the Secunderabad-bound Devagiri Express for almost an hour after he was unhappy with his seat allotment. This had a cascading effect with nine other outstation trains delayed apart from seven local services cancelled, scheduled to ply from CST at the time.
The MLA in question – Shiv Sena’s Hemant Patil from Nanded refused to let the train depart from CSTM at its designated time of 9.10 pm as he was allotted the side lower berth in a special coach (2ndAC) which is anyways reserved free-of-charge for ministers as per existing rules.
The 17057 CSTM-Secunderabad aka Devagiri Express was finally allowed to leave the station at 9.57 pm, a full 50 minutes beyond its scheduled departure time. According to officials, the nine delayed trains include 11305- CSTM-Solapur, 12322 CSTM-Howrah Express, 12701 CSTM-Hyderabad Express, 12133 CSTM-Mangalore (Karwar express), 12115 CSTM-Solapur (Sidheshwar express), 1011 CSTM-Manglore (Konkan Kanya Express), 11057 CSTM-Amritsar Express, 11027 CST- Madras (Chennai Express) and 11093 CSTM-Varanasi Express. While all these trains were delayed by more than 20 minutes, seven locals constituting late night services on the mainline towards Kalyan were cancelled.
"Netaji (Patil) and his men held up the train for almost an hour, which is a serious offence under the Railway Act. Every time the train moved ahead, netaji and his supporters kept pulling the chain and the 9.10 PM Devgiri Express finally left CST around 10 PM," said a senior railway officer, requesting anonymity.
Officers of Central Railway (CR) have demanded that Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Maharashtra Assembly Speaker Haribhau Bagde act against the public representative.
The MLA stuck to his demand that he be given a berth of his choice but the officials refused to consider it.
When asked whether CR would constitute an inquiry into the incident, the senior officer shot back and asked, "Are you saying that we are at fault? It's 'netaji' (politician) who is at fault, who did not fear law. Why we would constitute an inquiry?”
"Rather our Chief Minister should constitute an inquiry if he can take cognisance of the inconvenience caused to 2,000 passengers or the Assembly Speaker should take strict note of MLA's conduct," said the officer.
Another senior railway officer said, "Such an act from a public representative, who claims to be serving people, ought to be stopped and penal action against him would definitely set a precedent."
As the assembly session ended, a 2-AC coach had been added to the packed Devgiri Express, to accommodate the VIPs departing for their respective constituencies. The MLA could not be reached for comments.