While the city is being ‘new-made’ to please the VVIP coming on a ‘high profile’ visit the Dehradun railway station has remained as it is, beset with traffic jams in the roads around it and the dirt and filth strewn all around. The station remaining unaffected by the vigorous ‘beautification’ drive going all around is all the more strange in view of the fact that the BJP president Amit Shah is scheduled to leave the city through the station. Dehradun Railway Station superintendent Kartar Singh said on Saturday that he is unaware of Shah boarding a train from the station on way to Delhi on the completion of his two-day Dehradun trip.
When this correspondent –shocked over the station being left out of the all-embracing cleanliness drive being launched now with a rare zeal-asked Singh why things are so he said that the cleanliness works in and around the station are done through outsourcing. “We are launching campaigns from time to time to make the people aware of their duties to keep the station clean. Many of them are still in the habit of dumping things they have no use of on the platforms or on the tracks. This habit must change for the better. The sanitation workers working on outsourcing are doing their jobs well. We inspect the station daily too. If we come across any filth on the station we have it cleaned by the sanitation workers,” he said.
Notably, Garhwal Commissioner Dilip Jawalkar had brainstormed with Indian Railway Officials in Dehradun on Friday and during the meeting, ways about how to make areas around Dehradun station free from traffic jams and litter and also about how to beautify the station were discussed in details. The meeting as it coincided with the beautification and road- repairing drives being launched now around the city in view of the VVIP visit spawned hope in many that the station would receive some positive changes too. This is more in view of the information that Amit Shah would leave the city by train. However, nothing positive was found by this correspondent when he moved around the station on Saturday.