People's Democracy

MAHARASHTRA

Pentup Discontent Of Mumbai Suburban Commuters Explodes

Mahendra Singh

THE pentup discontent of Virar-Churchgate route Suburban railway commuters of Mumbai, residing in Dahisar-Virar section, exploded on December 10 resulting in complete halting of suburban as well as main line services of Western Railway for about seven hours between 8.30 am and 3.00 pm. This was triggered by the rail satyagrah organised by DYFI and several other organisations including political parties CPI(M), INC, JD(S), CITU, AIDWA, SFI on that day. The DYFI took the initiative in organising this satyagraha.

The organisers had originally intended to stage symbolic satyagraha for one hour between 8.00 am to 9.00 at Mira Road, Naigaon, Vasai, Nalasopara railway stations to press their demand for improving suburban railway train services used by commuters residing in Dahisar-Virar region. The satyagraha was smooth and peaceful and thousands of satygrahis, who were joined by many more commuters, terminated it after one hour at all places as per earlier decision except Nalasopara. Here, a large section of commuters who had joined the satyagraha, refused to vacate the railway tracks and insisted on being allowed to court arrest to register their protest. K K Prakashan, CPI(M) Mumbai committee member and the leader of satyagraha, suggested to the Assistant Commissioner of Railway Police, Aarti Bandgar, to allow the satyagrahis to court arrest. However, in her arrogance, the ACP turned down the suggestion. And the police brutally attacked the satyagrahis with lathis. This led to stone throwing and the police burst tear gas shells and a smoke grenade was also exploded. Some policemen and a number of satyagrahis were injured in this. Twenty seven persons, including CPI(M) and DYFI leaders were arrested. Among them included CPI(M) WSTC member, Chandrasekhar Nair, DYFI Nalasopara president, Rajan Uttaman Nair, Ashok Banarjee etc. With a view to terrorise the agitators, various offences under IPC and under section 152 of Railway Act, which provides for imprisonment upto ten years and life imprisonment, were registered against those arrested. This police brutality led to strong protests on the same day in different railway stations, extending the satyagraha by hours.

On account of lack of availability of lower middle class and middle class affordable housing in Mumbai city, there has been phenomenal increase in population in Dahisar-Virar region, more particularly Mira Road-Virar region. This region which had a population of about 5 lakh in 1991 is now home to nearly 20 lakh people. This growth in population occured without commensurate growth of infrastructure, thus aggravating problems connected with availability of basic civic amenities. Even today, as in pre-independence period, there are only two railway tracks between Borivali-Virar, on which suburban as well as the main line sevices are run. The number of trains running daily cannot be increased substantially without quadrupling the railway track. On account of inadequate number of train services, the commuters have to travel daily in inhuman conditions. The railway administration also accepts that 14-16 passengers are crushed together in one square metre of train compartment during peak hours. It is torturous to entrain and detrain at intermediate stations. Commuters even travel on roof, the linking space in between two compartments, or hang on to footboards. Not surprisingly, so far in current year, more than one thousand passengers have lost their lives while travelling.

The discontent among the commuters about the treacherous travel conditions has aggravated with every passing year. Many incidents of spontaneous explosions of above discontent have occurred during last one decade. However, adequate necessary measures were not initiated. For many years, the reason being cited by authorities has been the familiar refrain of ‘lack of funds’. The fact is that the governments have always given priority to improve facilities available to the rich. They were sure that whatever the travel conditions, the residents of Dahisar-Virar would commute daily. The railway track quadrupling project was kicked off in 1996-97, and was to be completed by 2002. However, the project is still incomplete.

In this background, the DYFI Mumbai Western Suburban Taluka Committee initiated a Right to Travel Campaign, demanding among other things quadrupling of Borivali-Virar track by March 31, 2006, increasing the number of trains in the sector, more Bhayander and Vasai Suburban trains during peak hours, Andheri-Virar shuttle service every 30 minutes, etc., about a year ago. It submitted memorandums to general manager Western Railway, chairman Mumnai Rail Vikas Kendra (MRVC), conducted a signature campaign at railway stations (it collected signatures from eighty thousands commuters), staged a Right to Travel Convention inaugurated by CPI(M) Lok Sabha leader Basudeb Acharia on September 11, 2005 and held a dharna at MRVC office at Churchgate on October 28, 2005. This sustained activity won ever growing support for its campaign. The railway authorities had to take note of this struggle and quadrupling work was restarted. But, again the administration continued to be indifferent to woes of the commuters, refusing to initiate any immediate measures to ameliorate their sufferings. Therefore the DYFI decided to stage rail satyagraha on December 10.

To broaden the campaign, DYFI appealed to local units of all political parties, mass organisations and social-cultural organisation active in Dahisar-Virar region to join the satyagraha. The response was overwhelming and about 70 organisations joined the satyagraha. To popularise the satyagraha, a large numbers of meetings were conducted between Dahisar-Virar and about one lakh leaflets were distributed among commuters, more than five thousand posters were put up all over Mumbai, more particularly at railway stations in this section.

To deter the DYFI from staging satyagraha, the Railway Police served notices on Shailendra Kamble, DYFI Maharashtra general secretary, and other leaders like Acharya, Preeti, threatening them with severe action if any untoward incident occurred.

A majority of those who enrolled as satyagrahis belonged to DYFI, CPI(M), CITU. Prominent among those who participated in satyagraha were Mahendra Singh, CPI(M) Mumbai secretary, Ram Naik, BJP leader and former railway minister, Ashok Banerjee, CPI(M) Western suburban Taluka secretary, K K Prakashan, CPI(M) Mumbai committee member, Shailendra Kamble, DYFI state secretary, K K Theckedath, Tapti Mukhopadhya, College Teacher Union leaders, Prabhakar Shetty, Venugopal of CPI(M), Advocate Pradeep Salvi, Ashok Pawar, K Narayan, Chandrashekhar Nair, Ayaz Atar, Ashok Dehre, Rajan Nair, Uttaman, Michael Futardo, Bipin Cutinho, Mrs Tendulkar etc of INC, Vilas Vichare of JD(S) and others.

This was the first time when an organised protest against inhuman travel conditions, disorganised suburban and main line train services of Western Railway disrupted rail services for 7 hours. The satyagraha received wide publicity in print and electronic media. The wide publicity, propaganda and the large scale mass participation has once again highlighted the woes of Western railway commuters, residing in Dahisar-Virar region. The mass response to satyagraha has strengthened the resolve of the DYFI and the commuters to further intensify their campaign to achieve their demands.