In a major mob fury akin to the one witnessed in the western suburbs of Mumbai nearly five years ago, irate commuters went on a large-scale rampage at Diva Railway Station in the city’s distant eastern suburbs, after the snapping of a pantograph contributed to major disruption in suburban train services on the Central Railway and harbour networks, inconveniencing lakhs of office-bound Mumbaikars.
In the mob violence, the commuters – aggrieved as they were by the disruption in services due to a technical snag – staged rail blockades, burnt vehicles and hurled stones at the police and other security personnel in a spontaneous act of protest that led to the disruption of suburban train services for nearly seven hours. As many as nine Railway employees and police personnel were injured in the mob violence. Those injured comprised - three Central Railway motormen, one assistant security commandant of Railway Protection Force (RPF), one RPF head constable and four jawans.
Trouble erupted at around 6.50 am, after the pantograph of a local train from Badlapur to Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST) snapped between Thakurli and Dombivli, both satellite suburbs located in the eastern part of Mumbai. Owing to this, the Railway authorities switched off the OHE power from 6.50 am to 7.26 am and diverted the Down and Up locals on fast lines between Kalyan and Diva from 7.25 am.
Before long, railway commuters – waiting at Diva Station in the neighbouring Thane district went berserk. The repeated announcements made by the Railway authorities on the public address system about the reason causing the disruption in train services went unheeded by the commuters who turned violent.
The irate commuters squatted on the Down and Up tracks blocking the movement of trains on both sides. In the extensive stone hurling that was witnessed after 10.30 am, a motorman of K-16 local (Kalyan-CST) got injured. later two other motormen –identified as RK Chawda, motorman of S-16 local and HG Patel another motorman – were injured in the stone pelting. They were admitted to Byaculla Railway Hospital.
Similarly, an Assistant Security Commandant/RPF identified as Jaiswal was injured and was admitted to Kalyan Railway Hospital. Four Jawans from Railway Protection Special Force and one RPF Head Constable also sutained injuries in the mob violence. “The miscreants have damaged Railway property viz seven ATVM machines and three booking counters at Diva Railway Station and a level Crossing Gate Boom at Diva level crossing. They have also damaged two booking counters and six ATVMs at Dombivali Railway Station (Kalyan end),” a senior Central Railway official said.
In addition, the protesters also damaged as many as ten EMU rakes. “The repairs will be undertaken as soon as they reach car sheds,” the Railway official said. Meanwhile, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis reviewed the situation after the incident and appealed to the people to maintain peace.
“The Chief Minister has appealed for peace. Police are taking all steps to restore peace. There was a mob frenzy,” Minister of State for Home Ranjit Patil said. later in the afternoon, the Central Railway authorities restored the services. However, normalcy in services had not happened till the evening. “All railway services on the up and down lines have been restored completely. Trains are running as usual now. I wish to appeal to the people not to block railway lines when an incident like this takes place. Stopping trains further derails our efforts to restore services in case of a mishap,” Central Railway's senior public relations officer Anil Kumar Jain said.
Meanwhile, Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu said that his ministry was drawing up a plan for revamping of suburban railway network in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR). “Suburban rail network is under severe stress. long neglected. Drawing up plan to revamp it on top priority. Need time to implement. Huge task,” Prabhu tweeted.
Prabhu will visit Thane and hold a meeting on January 9 and hold meetings with the railway officials and commuters’ representatives on the problems faced by the commuters on the Thane-Karjat and Thane-Kasara section of the Central Railway.
In a news release, Thane Guardian Minister Ganesh Naik stated that upon a request made by him and fellow MP from Kalyan Srikant Shinde, Prabhu had agreed to visit Thane on January 09 and hold meetings with the officials and representatives of commuters to thrash out the present issues on the suburban section between Thane and Kasara and Karjat.
In a related development, NCP’s Former Minister Jitendra Ahwad demanded a judicial probe into the incident of lathi-charge on commuters. Friday’s mob violence was akin to the one witnessed on September 1, 2009 at Nala Sopara –a station located in the busy Borivli-Virar suburban railway corridor of the Western Railway – where hundreds of angered suburban railway commuters had hurled stones at police personnel and damaged railway property following disruption in train services caused by the snapping of an over head electricity wire.
In their bid to quell the violent mobs, the Government Railway Police (GRP) personnel resorted to lathi-charge and opened several rounds of fire in the air. No major injures were reported from either among the agitating suburban commuters or the police personnel. There have also been several such instances in the recent past, when the aggrieved commuters resorted to protest action.
On November 21,2010, angry protesters disrupted the suburban train services on the Central Railway’s mainline for nearly two hours, after two women were run over and another person injured by a speeding local at Vikhorli station in north-east Mumbai.On February 4, 2009, Thousands of inconvenienced railway commuters had given vent to their anger on Wednesday, by blocking the trains at Borivli, a northern suburban terminus, for nearly five hours, and creating a major chaos in the metropolis.
On July 21 2009, angered commuters had gone berserk, blocking trains and ransacking property at the Nallasophara railway station, which is 20 km away from Borvili. Earlier on December 10, 2007, several lakhs of commuters of the Mira Road-Virar sector had boycotted suburban train services on the Western Railway for 12 hours to highlight their various grievances including shortage of rakes and appallingly low frequency to northern city suburbs beyond Borivli.