It was a shocker to me while I was travelling in 2393 sampoorna kranti express last night. As the train was about to reach Kanpur a middle aged man of about 55 years died in the train. He was ill for a long time and was returning to Patna after his medical treatment.
After his sudden demise, his family members started crying and the news of his death spread like fire in the train. Innumerable people gathered to see the corpse, as if an action flick was going on .He was accompanied by his wife and his 2 sons.
When the train reached Kanpur, Railway Protection Force (R.P.F) officials tried to manhandle the relatives of the deceased. Then after a while some top officials came to handle the situation and they said, “it is against the railway law book to carry a corpse.” Her wife begged for mercy but her tears were of no use as the R.P.F men started threatening them. Deceased’s son finally agreed but asked for some help to carry his father’s body to Patna in a private vehicle as it was an unfamiliar city for them, but no help was offered to them.
Finally they were forced to vacate and meanwhile the fellow passengers looked into each other’s face as they could not do anything.
As I was very much worried about the family I called an official working in Delhi he gave me the following details:
- To avail any facility the person should have a proper ticket.
- Medical assistance is provided to medical patients during their journey, on prior information.
- If a person dies during his/her journey, a doctor and a GRP personnel are called for checking whether it was a normal death or not.
- Post mortem is required, and the dead body, in any case, can not go into a passenger coach. It has to be booked in the parcel coach as soon as possible.
- Their tickets are marked as break journey which means on the same ticket they can travel in any train of that route to their destination.
But in this case most of the rules were violated and the deceased’s relative had to face many hardships. If we think on humanitarian grounds then this kind of action can be said as human rights violation and proper action should be taken against the authorities concerned. But the biggest question which comes in our mind is that why do the so called protectors of law use their powers only on the oppressed and on the ones who are poor and helpless. They should take action against the criminals and the offenders who are the real culprits as they break laws religiously.
On a daily basis, around a thousand people are found travelling without tickets and are left easily either by taking fine or bribes by the ticket checker; many cases of theft and robbery are reported daily at the railways but only a few get justice. R.P.F should take action against these activities instead of flexing muscles on the helpless.
The most amazing thing is that the politicians not only travel free but even their “chamchas and chhut bhaiya netas” travel without a proper ticket or a railway pass in trains such as Rajdhani, but no action is taken against them; instead, V.I.P treatment is availed by them.
But a common man has no such privilege. Instead, the basic rights are also withdrawn. But for how long will only the downtrodden be suppressed and money be extracted from them? Railways is just one example, almost every government department has the same story to tell. If this type of attitude will keep on prevailing then how will our motto, “India for all and all for India” be achieved.
So a serious revaluation is needed.
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