Maharashtra MPs take Union railway minister Mamata Banerjee to task for failing Mumbai.
When Mumbai stops work, there is hell to pay. On a day when most Mumbaikars took the day off to avoid being left stranded on platforms in the wake of the strike by railway motormen, Maharashtra’s political guns boomed in Delhi and Mumbai to end the impasse.
By Tuesday evening, the strike was called off after the strikers were promised a fast-track committee to look into their demands by June 15. The day’s business loss: Rs100 crore.
Chief minister Ashok Chavan moved the PMO to get involved. He made a simple point: while he could invoke the Essential Services Maintenance Act to arrest the motormen, if trains didn’t run, the city would have to close down for three or four days to avoid law and order problems.
“There cannot be any alternative to trains. If we have to arrest 900 motormen and suspend local trains, we will be forced to declare holidays, thus throwing the city into chaos,” Chavan warned.
In Delhi, Parliament came to a standstill when MPs from Maharashtra attacked railway minister Mamata Banerjee, who was busy preparing for Kolkata’s municipal polls, for failing to resolve the motormen’s issues despite being given adequate notice.
The deputy leader of the BJP in the Lok Sabha, Gopinath Munde, was unrelenting: “The railway ministry owes an explanation as to why it has not taken cognisance of the motormen’s demand for the last six months. The centre is responsible for paralysing Mumbai.”
Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena’s Raj Thackeray, realising that the public mood was against the union holding the city to ransom, warned the motormen to return to work or face their wrath. NCP chief and agriculture minister Sharad Pawar talked to Mamata Banerjee on the importance of resolving the crisis fast.
The motormen were rapped on the knuckles by the high court as well. A division bench comprising acting chief justice JN Patel and justice SC Dharmadhikari said the “situation in the city shocks the conscience of the court.”
The strike, which brought Mumbai to a standstill for 36 hours, was called off after a meeting chaired by home minister RR Patil was told by the Railway Board that the motormen’s charter of demands would be considered by a fast-track committee.
A visibly relieved chief minister said: “I am glad the motormen have decided to resume work in the larger interests of the people.” Chavan, whose biggest challenge was law and order, had deployed 4,400 buses to move commuters. To prevent any venting of public anger at railway stations, the administration had asked people to stay at home unless they really had to move about. The chief minister’s office said commuter traffic dropped by 60% on Tuesday. Attendance in many city offices was between 20-40%.
At Mantralaya, a special task force headed by the chief secretary, top police officials and officials of the Western and Central Railways was constituted to update the Union cabinet secretary about the socio-political developments in city.
The last 36 hours also saw the ruling Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party debating the implementation of ESMA. A senior office in the special task force said: “Home minister RR Patil (NCP) was of the view that ESMA should be invoked to teach the motormen a lesson. The primary responsibility of the state is to ensure law and order. The railways were not their jurisdiction.”
Earlier in the day, with the motormen pressing ahead with their stir, at least 170 suburban train drivers were taken into custody from the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST) on charges of unlawful assembly and obstructing other rail employees from reporting for duty.
After the strike was called off, home minister Patil said police cases filed against the motormen and disciplinary action initiated against them would be withdrawn.
The motormen’s union leader, Jayant Nimsodkar, who met Patil, told reporters in Mumbai that they would wait till June 15 for the railway authorities to consider their demands, which includes wage hike.
He said the motormen had earlier announced that they would go on strike from January 26 to highlight their demands. “But we withdrew after the railway authorities said our demands would be looked into. Nothing happened and we were forced to take the step of resorting to strike on Monday,” he said.
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