AS TRAIN COMPLAINTS RAISE POLL HEAT, IT'S AN UNUSUALLY HOT SUMMER FOR RAILWAYS
It's proving to be an unusually 'hot' summer for Indian Railways. Along with tackling the huge rush of summer passengers every day, the transporter also finds itself at the centre of a heated political battle on social media over overcrowded trains.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, on April 21, kicked up a controversy by posting a now-viral video taken by a passenger of a crowded unreserved compartment, purportedly of Kerala Express, in which passengers are seen sitting even inside a toilet, the gangway and aisle.
"Train journey has become a punishment under Narendra Modi's rule! Passengers of every category are being harassed by the Modi government, which is promoting only elite trains by reducing general coaches from common people's trains," Rahul posted. "If the common person's transport is to be preserved, then the Modi government, which is ruining the railways, must be removed."
Rail Bhawan mandarins, who handle social media, were quick to update everywhere the various measures railways has taken this year to clear the summer rushâan annual peak season during summer holidays that call for deployment of additional trains.
Overcrowded trains, especially unreserved coaches, are almost par for the course in the world's fourth-largest railways, serving the most populous country, all round the year. Complaints about services from passengers onboard running trains, on social media, are also common. At any given time, there are posts from users complaining about railway recruitment exams, refund of ticket money and general service deficiencies.
Realising that social media is a legitimate place for capturing user feedback and complaints, zonal railways and the railway ministry have for the past 10 years deployed special teams to pick up and redress complaints on social media platforms, especially X (formerly Twitter).
But of late, the transporter has been getting a rap online, with several users posting videos of crowded trains and also of unreserved passengers forcefully occupying reserved seats, apparently in protest against low availability of general class seats.
In a few cases, officials have found that users had posted old videos and of already-resolved complaints from the past, etc. They have also identified a few social media handles that post these regularly. "Several posts seem politically motivated when the fact is we have been running more trains than usual, carrying more passengers than ever," said a senior railway official.
Over the past two days, the railways has carried over 30 million passengers in regular as well as special/additional trains. On April 15, over 10.7 million passengers travelled in trains. Every day, the average is around 7-8 million as opposed to around 5.5 million in non-peak seasons.
On April 20, a day before Rahul's post, railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw posted that over 9,000 additional train trips have been planned to clear the summer rush, which is around 2,700 more trips than last summer.
But any controversy online arising out of the summer-rush management this time threatens to snowball into political bickering, thanks to the timing. Zonal general managers, Railway Board members as well as other senior ministry officials have been to stations to oversee arrangements.
This time, railways has mined its data for smart deployment of additional trains. The extra demand is originating from Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Odisha, West Bengal, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Delhi. But more importantly, the planners have analysed unmet demand from last few yearsâvolume of wait-listed passengers, pattern of last-minute cancellations of unconfirmed tickets and the likeâto roll out the additional trains on critical routes, officials said.
2024-04-24T13:50:22Z dg43tfdfdgfd