Train traffic on the Mumbai-Chennai route went haywire on Sunday, with eight trains running late after a violent protest by Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha members.
The protest was against the scuttling, by the Railway authorities, of their journey to Srinagar in a special train to take part in the national flag hoisting at Lal Chowk in Srinagar.
More than 1,800 Yuva Morcha members from different districts of Karnataka boarded a special train in Bangalore the party had chartered for a “pilgrimage.” In the early hours of Sunday, the authorities stopped the train somewhere near Daund Junction in Maharashtra and re-routed it to Bangalore. (The train is expected to reach Bangalore on Monday morning).
At Solapur Junction in Maharashtra, the Yuva Morcha members travelling in the 23-bogie train were surprised to find that they were being returned to Bangalore. They staged an angry protest at Solapur Junction for more than an hour before they were persuaded to board their train.
The irate members pulled the emergency chain of the train in between Akkalkot and Naganasur stations and squatted before the train, demanding that the train be allowed to travel to Jammu as scheduled. They shouted slogans against the UPA government, terming Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi agents of Pakistan and alleging that they were trying to prevent “patriotic” BJP workers from hoisting the national flag.
The train, which entered Karnataka through the Dudhini station, took more than six hours to pass through major stations in Gulbarga district, including Station Gangapur, Gulbarga, Wadi junction and Yadgir.
At Station Gangapur, the Yuva Morcha workers were involved in a fracas with police personnel after they stoned the station manager's office and damaged the windowpanes. The police used mild force to bring the situation under control. Later, they were persuaded to proceed further. Though the train did not stop at the Gulbarga station, the BJP workers stopped the train outside the station by pulling emergency chain. For two hours, they did not allow the train to move further by demanding that they be given drinking water.
The train was forcibly stopped at Wadi Junction and Yadgir station also, where the Yuva Morcha members raised slogans against the Centre.
Several trains were running late by more than six to eight hours because of these hold-ups. These included the Delhi-bound Karnataka Express, Chennai-bound Madras Mail, Mumbai-bound Trivandrum–Mumbai Express, Coimbatore-bound Kurla Express, Mumbai-bound Udhyan Express, Wadi-Solapur Passenger, Raichur-Bijapur Passenger and the Faluknama Express.
