New Delhi | 18-Dec-2019 : The properties of the India Railways, including trains and railway tracks, are some of the most frequently targeted items during protests and demonstrations, especially if it is against the central government.
The ongoing protests across the country against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) has been no different. There have been several instances in the past few days where trains were vandalized and tracks blocked, thus disrupting the train services by angry demonstrators.
Now, Minister of State in the Railways Ministry Suresh Angadi has courted controversy by ordering shoot at sight anybody destroys the public property. “I strictly warn concerned district administration and railway authorities, if anybody destroys public property, including railway, I direct as a Minister, shoot them at sight”, Angadi told ANI while replying to a question regarding the railway facing losses in West Bengal and other states due to the ongoing protests in the region.
The minister further asserted that it is taxpayers’ money and to develop one train it takes years together. “If anybody throws stones at that time government should take stringent action like Vallabhbhai Patel. Local minorities, some communities are unnecessarily creating problems to destabilize the country’s economy,” he added.
Over the past few days, protesters had set fire to the Beldanga railway station complex in West Bengal’s Murshidabad district and blocked tracks and vandalized the complex at the Uluberia railway station in Howrah district. At Krishnapur station in Murshidabad district, a number of empty trains were set on fire, while railway tracks at Lalgola station were damaged.
The agitators set fire on railway tracks at Harishchandrapur in Malda district. Dozens of trains in West Bengal, Assam and Tripura had also been delayed or cancelled since the protests broke out in the three states against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act.
Eastern Railway on Tuesday canceled as many as 19 trains due to the ongoing unrest across the country over the protests. “In connection with law and order problem in the jurisdiction of Northeast Frontier Railway and in New Farakka-Azimganj and Krishnanagar-Lalgola Sections of Eastern Railway, 19 trains have been canceled for today,” Public Relations Officer of Eastern Railway said in a release.
CAA seeks to grant Indian citizenship to refugees from Hindu, Christian, Sikh, Buddhist and Parsi communities fleeing religious persecution from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh, and who entered India on or before December 31, 2014. However, in the North-Eastern states, there is much discontent over the Act, which the indigenous people say is a threat to their identity. (IndiaTimes)
