People's Democracy

MUMBAI NEWSLETTER

Right To Travel Convention Demands More 

Trains On Western Suburban Lines

P R Krishnan

A RIGHT to travel convention held in North-West Mumbai recently demanded more trains in this sector and speedy completion of the Borivali-Virar track quadrupling work. The convention noted that the promise made by union railway minister Lalu Prasad Yadav in Lok Sabha in March this year to speed up the work of quadrupling has not found urgency with the railway administration. As a result, the suffering of the travelling public has increased. What is surprising is that they are required to pay heavily to go through this unending breathless suffering. 

The convention warned the railway administration that if the quadrupling work is not speedily taken up and results shown, the travelling public will have to resort to massive protest actions including a second Rail Satyagraha as witnessed on December 10, 2005.

The convention organised by the Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) near the Mira Road railway station was inaugurated by the CPI(M) Polit Bureau member and MP, Sitaram Yechury. This convention was a part of the ongoing movement against inhuman conditions of suburban train travel. Though the agitation for more trains was initially started by the DYFI, it later on became a movement of the train travelling public. It has now been joined by more than 70 other organisations. 

Yechury in his speech expressed his surprise that no modernisation work has been undertaken on this railway line after independence. It is a matter of serious concern that the administration did not bother to move and implement the modernisation plan made by the railway ministry under the guidance of the then railway minister Professor Madhu Dandavate.

The conspiracy of suppressing the plan must be unearthed, demand Yechury. He said the plight of women, children and old people including thousands of students travelling up and down on these lines is unimaginably horrible. He said 1000 precious lives are being lost every year in accidents due to heavy rush on the trains. This is clear from the admission of the railway administration that 14-16 people are squeezed together in one square metre floor space during peak-hour local trains. As per experts opinion, more additional trains can be run within the existing lines thus providing relief to suburban commuters. Referring to the government and the capitalists talk about converting Mumbai into another Shanghai, Yechury questioned as to how it is possible without improving such basic infrastructure. He said this was not happening partly because of bureaucratic red-tapism and called for fighting it. 

Referring to the observations made by certain speakers earlier in the meeting that the CPI(M) is an important power centre in Delhi and can make the government implement people’s demands, Yechury said the CPI(M) and other Left parties will certainly continue bringing pressure on the government to implement people-oriented programmes. However, he asked them to be conscious of the fact that this alone will not make the government to act. This pressure has to be backed by people’s movement. He concluded by appealing to the people to organise and help strengthen people’s movement not only for the improvement of the railway system but to build up a new India where there will be no exploitation of man by man.

The convention was chaired by Maharashtra state DYFI general secretary Shailendra Kamble. There were quite a number of speakers representing various organisations engaged in different fields of activities. Among those who spoke representing those organisations were Mahendra Singh (CPI-M), Ashok Bannerjee (CITU), Ram Sagar Pande (Junior College Teachers Union), Prabhakar Shetty (National Bank Employees Union), H R Singh (Senior Citizens Association), K K Prakasan (DYFI), Uday Samant (Janata Dal-Secular), Abdul Lateef (Human Rights Organisation), Manish More (Mira Bhayandar Shikshan Mandal), PVK Nambiar (Bassein Kerala Samajan). K S Venugopal (Sree Narayana Mandira Samiti), Baburao Shinde (Mira Bhayandar Vikas Mandal), Rajalakshmi (AIDWA), Gajbhiye (Krishna Townships Residents Association) and Dr Azimuddin (Movement for Peace and Justice).

It may be recalled that it was on these railway lines in the western suburbs that massive protest demonstrations took place on December 10 last year when the state police and RPF together resorted to brutal lathicharge and teargas shelling. Many of the protesters were arrested and 25 leading activities were kept in jail. They have been released on bail. Most of them along with their family members were among the participants in the convention. 

PROTECT HAWKERS

There are more than 3 lakh hawkers in the city of Mumbai and its suburbs. On an average, there are three other persons in the families of each hawker depending on his income for their livelihood. Amongst them are school-going children, old men and women. Substantial number of the hawkers are displaced workers from mills and factories. Their life is already in a miserable condition because they live in shanties and jiffies with no civic facilities. 

Even such a miserable livelihood of hawkers is now threatened because the police, the state government and the Greater Mumbai Municipal Administration are driving them away from wayside footpaths. In addition, goondas are also hired by landlord-builders lobby to evict them from their places. They are thus being rendered without any income to live. Their right to life, enshrined in the Constitution, is being endangered. This cannot be allowed and they need to be protected. This was the message of a rally of hawkers organised at Malad in the Western Suburbs of north west Mumbai recently.

Inaugurating the rally organised under the banner of Ferriwalla Manch, Sitaram Yechury lashed out against the government policy of throwing out the hawkers. He asked the government to show how the hawkers and their families would continue without jobs and without any income. “The largescale closure of industries and retrenchments have already created vast unemployment. The people who are earning their livelihood by selling vegetables and doing petty business on the roadsides are picked up and thrown away. What will be the result? Frustration and lawlessness. This is what you will give to the people after 60 years of freedom” asked Yechury to the government in anger. The CPI(M) leader said that the government is resorting to this method in order to remodel the city of Mumbai akin to Shanghai. The government here should know, said Yechury, that the Chinese government before removing people from any locality or dismantling shops from waysides and roadsides are making adequate provisions to rehabilitate the people in alternative jobs. The affected people are also given alternate accommodation with modern amenities and facilities like housing, schools, hospitals and transport.

He also pointed that even the Left Front state government in West Bengal has provided alternate accommodation for hawkers before they were asked to move away. He asked the Vilasrao Deshmukh government to do the same. Yechury demanded that the UPA government should evolve a National Hawkers Policy soon. It is necessary because these are nation-wide problems. He said a government which cannot provide jobs to the people must not have the right to dismantle the people from their existing livelihood. He said the CPI(M) and Left parties fully support the cause of hawkers.

The Janvadi Hawkers Sabha secretary B Balan presided over the rally. Addressing the rally the CPI(M) MLA Narsaya Adam said that it is the government which is responsible for joblessness to the people. Such a government has no right to remove the hawkers from the roadside who are struggling hard to earn their livelihood. Others who spoke included Shankar Salvi, HMKP, Harischandra Bell AITUC, and Mahendra Singh of CPI(M).