JALANDHAR: A number of daily passengers were beaten by the police and 12 of them were arrested when they stopped Barauni Express by pulling the alarm chain seconds after it setout from the city railway station recently.
Earlier, the passengers held a demonstration outside the station demanding abolition of super – charges which had been increased from Rs 2 to Rs 5 per journey. They said in case the government found it difficult to withdraw the charges a reasonable amount should be included in monthly season ticket (MST). The passengers commuting between Amritsar and Ludhiana said it was totally unjustified that a holder of MST costing Rs 113 had to shell out Rs 300 per month as super charges. Secondly, they said increase in these supplementary charges was just 25% in case of first class passengers who had now to pay Rs 15 instead of Rs 12, whereas the hike was 150% in the case of second class passengers who had to pay Rs 5 instead of Rs 2.
The commuters, who had been agitating since April 1 when new charges came into force, also urged the Railway Ministry to allow them travel by sleeper coaches during the day as the number of general coaches with mail trains was only two or three, They said general coaches could accommodate 300 passengers, whereas the number of daily passengers on the Amritsar Ludhiana section was 20,000.
They also demanded introduction of an evening train from Ludhiana to Amritsar some time between 5 p.m. and 6 p.m.
Article extracted from this publication >> May 21, 1993
