Passengers anguish leads to chaos onboard BSP Rajdhani!!!

I was onboard BSP-NDLS Raj Exp from BSP to NDLS. It followed a very unusual chain of events throughout the journey. Finally the passenger's ire were heard by top railway officials. Everyone was fed up with the poorest conditions in the Raj!! The sequence of events that took place are as under:

1) Train was in BSP station and it was all dirty from inside. FLies all around the birth, stinking toilets... the coach was hell. I called upon the attendant who called a safaiwala who at least wiped out the floor of the coach. Water served was far from being called chilled. The train stated moving from BSP at 0840 hrs exactly.

2) At Durg, there were continuous chin pulling for 4 times. I didnt knew the reason. Finally the train started moving out of Durg and stopped unexpectedly at Murhipar (15 kms after Durg). It is a very very small station. When it was there for quite sometimes, I went to the gate to find a crowd descended on tracks. Loud shouts were audible from there. Then I came to know what has happened.

Passengers of B2 coach had complained about the poor condition and the door of the coach which was not functioning (the inside door). to the train superintendent(TS) from BSP to Durg. The TS did nothing. Thus they pulled chain at Durg to complain the authorities. When they repeatedly pulled the chain, the train officials isolated those compartments!!! The chain of these coaches stopped working and the train was doing 110 kmph!! This worsened the situation.

3) The passengers then stopped the movement of Pantry Car people throuhg B2 coach. Some more protests lead to the stopping of train at Murhipar. People were determined to set things right at that station itself. They were shouting not to let the train move. The gaurd of the train was held and people stormed the Station Master's room. He tried to make people understand that nothing can be done at the small station Murhipar and they should lodge their complaints at either Gondia or Rajnandgaon. Telephone calls were made to these stations. Meanwhile no trains crossed us. We were there for 45 min or more. People were angry about:

a) Unhygeinic conditions
b) Napkins not available
c) Refridgerator of Pantry not working
d) Why was the train allowed to run with chains not working.

4) After getting a written assurance from the Station master of Murhipar that the problems wil be redressed at Gondia, the train left Murhipar.

5) Before Gondia, lunch was served and it was agin of poor standards. Later at Gondia, I found that flies were found in Gulabjamun pack of some passengers!!!!

6) At Gondia, the railway officials expressed their inability to help even though they had the full report on the problems. To make the matters worse, the TS misbehaved with the passengers. The scene was about to turn unruly with the shouts of even throwing the TS out came!!! The polite nature of the Station Master at Gondia calmed the crowd down. Gondia authorities said that they should contact the NGP authorities as they will be able to sort the problems out. The gaurd was not held this time and he flagged off the train. Seeing the train start moving, people were to dash to their coaches!!!The chains were still not working!!

7) 60 kms after Gondia, at Koka station, the train again stopped. I learnt that this was due to some failure of brakes. People shouted of having seen smoke after the train stopped!! The chains were then probably made working and the train ran at very slow speed for next 20 min.

8) At 1740 hrs we reached NGP. At the pf I saw senior railway officials under a cordon of RPF present. I ran to see what was going on. People complained to the Official present. The seniormost offcial present was DRM (or ADRM) of NGP Division. He was also speechless on seeing the vedio and written evidences. Passegers had also written the complait in the complaint book... A further scrutny of the complaint book revealed that such complaints were written almost everytime the train ran!!! The measures that DRM took were:
a) Fridge was repaired instantly.
b) 2 safaiwalas deployed in the train till ET.
c) He verbally suspended the PC manager.
d) Fresh food was loaded from NGP to be served.
e) He said that napkins were loaded, which noone in our coach got till Delhi!!!

However nothing was done for the full complaint book and the misbehaving staff. People again forgot to get the gaurd involved and as soon as the engine reversed, he flagged the train off!! With people still talking to the DRM!! People again took their seats in a hurry and I felt the real WAP1 acceleration!!

9) As soon as we left NGP, we were served with snacks, one more chilled jumpin and relatively good dinner. The disposable cups of morning reaplced by Fibre cups, spoons came packed, toothpik also made its presence felt!!


10) We reached NDLS at 0830 in the morning. The loco was WAP1 22050.