As the day progressed, railway services deteriorated from rather smooth to a trickle, as around 80 of the 800 fasting motormen were taken ill to various railway hospitals in the city.
There was nationalistic fervour during the working hours of Monday as Ajmal Kasab was predictably judged guilty. By evening it was the bread-and-butter and characteristically Mumbai’s preoccupation — the 6.11 and 7.14 locals — that took over.
The suburban railways’ motormen’s hunger strike protesting hike salaries at par with Sixth Pay Commission recommendations caused enormous hardship to Mumbaikars, out of touch in recent times with bandhs and trade unionism.
As the day progressed, services deteriorated from rather smooth to a trickle, as around 80 of the 800 fasting motormen were taken ill to various railway hospitals in the city.
SV Hardikar, one of the leaders of the striking motormen, put the blame for the chaos on the railway administration. The Mumbaikars paid the price for the stand-off between the motormen’s union and the railways.
Suburban train commuters like Nitin Saras fromBhandup stood over half an hour to squeeze into one of the unusually overcrowded trains. At CST, he said, “I would prefer a Thane train or else they (fellow commuters) will not allow me to get down. But two trains have left and they were for Karjat and Kasara.”
At Churchgate, the scene was no different. Dharmendra Sanghavi, Malad resident, said, “We are waiting here since 6.30pm. It is over three hours now. Trains are not running, and the ones that are, are too packed to even step in. Not more than four trains have left since 6.30 pm and now its 9pm.”
“I reached Grant Road station around 6.45pm after taking exams. There was no space to move on the platform. I decided to board a train towards Churchgate thinking that I will get an empty train to Borivli. However, it took 45 minutes to reach Charni Road. Finally, I alighted at Charni Road and took a bus for Churchgate, where the scene was worse. I then boarded a bus from Churchgate to Parel, but the bus did not move a bit after it reached VT,” said Prasad Shelar, a Wilson College student.
Rajat Pandey somehow made it to Mumbai airport to catch a Delhi flight that was to leave at 9pm. “I was to take a train at 7pm from Malad but knowing the situation decided to take a cab,” said Pandey. “I barely managed to make it in spite of the heavy traffic.”
(Reporting by Ninad Siddhaye, Ashutosh Shukla, Naveeta Singh, Jyoti Shelar, Hetal Vyas, Linah Baliga, Yogita Rao and Mayura Janwalkar)
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