Students block rail tracks in Mumbai; commuters hit hard

Lakhs of commuters faced hardships during the peak office hours today as hundreds of agitated students blocked the rail traffic, including suburban services between the busy Matunga and Dadar stations, over their demand for jobs in the Indian Railways.

Around 400 to 500 students from several states, who have done apprenticeship with the Indian Railways and want permanent jobs now, came out and sat on railway tracks at about 6.45 am.

The disruption forced the Central Railway (CR) to stop the suburban as well as express train services on the affected section - between Matunga and Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT) in south Mumbai.

"Efforts are on to talk to the agitators and remove them from tracks. All the four lines (the Up and Down fast and slow lines) are affected between Matunga and CSMT. The police and railway officials are having talks with them," a senior CR official said.

Chief PRO of the Central Railways Sunil Udasi, however, subsequently said the rail services on the affected section between Matunga and CSMT have resumed after the protesters were removed from the tracks.

The Brihanmumbai Electric Supply & Transport Undertaking (BEST), the transport wing of the city civic body, was running additional bus services to help the stranded passengers and office-goers reach their destinations.

"Considering the hardships faced by commuters, we decided to run extra services of the BEST buses," said Anil Kokil, the chairman of the BEST committee - the decision-making body of the civic body's transport wing.

"We are running additional trips from Kurla, Ghatkopar and Mulund stations. All the bus depots have been asked to press additional and maximum services," he said.

Meanwhile, thousands of commuters, who were stranded for hours in trains which bore the brunt of the agitation, alighted from the coaches and were seen walking along the railway tracks. Some even took to the social media to express their woes.

The Railway Protection Force (RPF) and the Mumbai police earlier had to use mild force to disperse the agitating students at Matunga.

The protesters, who have passed apprentice exam, are demanding full-time jobs in the Indian Railways and scrapping of the rail general manager's quota (GM quota) of filling in 20 per cent vacancies.

The protesting students also held placards displaying their demands.

In view of the agitation, the CR authorities swung into action and said a fresh round of exams to recruit the apprentices will be held soon.

"31st March is the last date to fill up forms for these apprentices, for the examination to be conducted shortly," said S K Jain, the divisional railway manager (DRM) of the CR's Mumbai division.

Some of the protesting students said, "We want full- time absorption of the successful students in the Railways, and scrapping of the GM quota."