Dear Editor,
Though we had been honoured to have a Railway Station at Yupia and further can witness increase in Trains being provided for the citizens but the Govt of Arunachal Pradesh has its eyes closed towards the harassment and hardship a common citizen face to reach the Railway station in order to catch a train or to reach Itanagar/ Naharlagun from the railway station.
1. It is very common practice being observed at the station that people are running to get a space in a single bus being allocated each for Naharlagun and Itanagar. Youths are jumping from running train to get a seat in the bus. People are found to be standing at Train Dashboard from Harmuti/ Gumto so that they are first in queue to get down from the Train. Due to this, the police officials are also not able to check the ILP at the exit door of the Stn in the rush. I feel, Govt is aware that a single coach (SL/3A) is 72-Seater and a bus is of 35-40 Capacity. Knowing this, I think it is easy to understand the rush that a common man has to go through to a get a place in bus.
2. So now, the question: Why should a common man has to run and have take chance of his/her life in the process. It is due to the reason that a common citizen cannot bear the exorbitant rates being charged by Pvt Vehicles on hire to reach Nlg/ Itanagar. A rate of Rs800/- to reach Itanagar and of RS500/- to reach Nlg is not economically justified for a common man. I hope, it is easy to understand if Govt is able to think wearing the shoes of a low/ middle class citizen. The Fare of travelling by AC-3A is Rs585 for 333Kms by train, but a person has to pay Rs800/- to reach a mere distance of arnd 25KMs to Itanagar. A common person cannot have a scorpio. And why are Govt Vehicles used by staffs for pick-up and drop for personal tours or for kin and near-ones.
3. There is no provision of any vehicle for passengers to reach Railway Station in morning to catch the Shatabdi Train. Also, there is no arrangement for citizens to reach Naharlagun/Itanagar once they arrive at Stn at 2140Hrs by Shatabdi train.
4. To catch a train at 1845Hrs, a person from Itanagar has to catch the only available bus at 1600hrs which is claiming a time of more than 02 Hours, as the same bus is parked at Nlg.
5. It is unfortunate to observe that the Govt Staffs at Stations are well aware of the rush and chaos at Stations in morning hours. Youths are jumping from running trains inviting mis-happenings. Govt should take necessary step to stop this at all, rather than expressing grief and concern after any incident.
6. On top of all harassment, the behaviour of APST driver/ conductor adds to the hardship being faced by people. The bus is overloaded with more than capacity and has to ply through the hilly terrain of Arunachal. Also, it is observed that the staffs on duty have their own vehicle perked near bus and passengers are asked to get into that, if they want comfort or if they don’t find space to even stand in bus. In this activity, the staff is earning Rs800/- during office duty.
After collecting fare from all the passengers in the bus (without giving tickets on occasions), the person simply gets down from the bus and drives his own vehicle leaving the whole over loaded bus in the hands of a single driver.
I appeal to Govt to seriously look upon this basic necessity of citizens of Arunachal rather than just inaugurating and laying foundation stone for this and that.
It is high time Govt should make a column to allow public to make comments on the already launched services. Rather than just having news of only launches and inauguration people would be happier to read news on improvement of basic services that he/ she use every day. Just by inaugurating ISBT or adding new trains the sufferings of common are not answered.
Govt if you are unaware of this basic problems, wear the shoes of a common citizen for a single day to learn the difficulties a common man face starting from prevalent dust in the town, travel for 15 min in a Tempo to know about the jerks caused by road of town, travel to station without using office or own vehicle.
Sincerely,
Sanjiv K Das,
Itanagar