Joy over the guilty verdict on Kasab was dampened by the 36 hour-long motormen’s strike. Even on Tuesday morning, citizens found it tough to reach office. Some commuters told team DNA of their experience.
Expert view
Exposes chinks in infrastructure
A parallel arrangement has to exist, a second line of action which is missing for so long. This shows the government’s lack of interest and concern for the public. A huge amount of money is being spent on infrastructure now, but the Metro and monorail projects should have been implemented long ago in the city. They should have anticipated this situation three decades ago. Regarding the motormen’s demands they should have come to the negotiating table with the government. Going on a strike is a very harsh move. This also shows that the motormen have no regard for law. Tomorrow they may derail a train or disrupt law and order. There has to be some strong action, some fear of the legal process, that must stop the motormen from resorting to such a rash action in future. There are many people who weren’t able to reach home till late night. So rather than punishing the government, the motormen punished the innocent commuters.
—Jitendra Gupta, member Citizens’ Transport committee
Improve their working conditions
Compare an airline pilot and train motorman. A pilot is working in a comfortable cabin, has a co-pilot, a crew and carries 200 passengers on a flight time of an hour and a half. The rest room and other facilities are really comfortable. The motorman is running a train alone, carrying as many as 5,000 passengers, in a hostile environment, has to stop and start the train almost every three to five minutes. The individual has to be alert all the time, has no assistant. He is always at the receiving end of public ire for delays. Rest rooms and other facilities are pathetic. Surely the railways, which carries 65 lakh daily commuters, could have met motormen’s reasonable demands much earlier. Two months ago, motormen had postponed their ‘strike’. What measures did the management take to avert such a crisis? Now every political party has expressed their opinion on an issue that is simply an administrative one. The MNS threatened dire consequences against the striking motormen, we simply don’t seem to be having a crisis management mechanism.
—Sudhir Badami, transport analyst
State needs contingency plan
Mumbaikars were stranded on the road till late night on Monday eventhough it wasn’t their fault. We cannot call it a natural disaster as it was entirely a man-made one. This could have been avoided by the authorities. The strike was not sudden and the motormen’s union has been pressing for their demand for a long period of time. Strike is a democratic way of showing protest. Employees have to resort to it, if the authority doesn’t listen. The management could have avoided such a situation by initiating talks with the union earlier. I don’t think the motormen were wrong this time and they have reasonable demand. However, the mode of protest was wrong. When the management was aware of such a brewing crisis they should have provided some back-up service for the commuters. Normally 60 per cent of BEST buses ply on the road, the authority should maintain a stock of reserve vehicles, which can be pressed into service, during such situations. Assistance from private transport bus contractors could have been sought.—Jagdeep Desai, architect and urban planner
Government actually mismanaged situation
I left office by 6.30 pm from Nariman Point on Monday and spent more than one hour on Churchgate station. All the trains were being cancelled hence we had no other option but go back to Nariman Point and hunt for a cab. There was chaos at Marine Drive, we somehow managed to reach only Mumbai Central and from there we decided to board an outstation train and it took us a long time. We only reached Borivli after 12.30 am. If the government had made any commitment they should have fulfilled it.
—Jayesh Chalishhazarwala, Kandivali to Churchgate
Authorities misjudged extent of damage
The fact that the union had to strike shows the government doesn’t care for their needs. So, we can say that the crisis is something which everyone was expecting. However there were no alerts from regular commuters. This strike was being taken lightly by the authorities and correct information wasn’t passed onto local commuters. I left late from office and got stranded at Churchgate station at night. They could have spread the message of alternative routes arranged by them on time via social networks.
—Jason Menezes, Borivli to Churchgate
Mumbaikars don’t get good amenities
I had no idea that commuting from home to my work place could become a nightmare. According to me it was fault of both motormen and the railway authorities who couldn’t sort out the problems of motormen. Mumbaikars get hefty taxes, but they don’t get any worthwhile service. We have to travel in an undignified way. Being a girl, I was unable to run behind speeding buses and stand with the unruly crowd. With buses getting overcrowded, autos started making capital in this crisis. This made the situation worse.
—Reshma Khan, Kurla to Vashi
No effort was made to manage crowds
It was tough for me to travel from Matunga to Saki Naka, Andheri to my work place. I had to spend 2 hours at the station, the commute normally takes me 45 minutes only. I don’t think motormen were really responsible for such a crisis. Authorities should have taken the threat seriously and they could have avoided the strike by giving some assurance, with a deadline for resolving motormen’s demands. Moreover there was no crowd management at the bus stops. Authorities did nothing to make the problems of commuters easy.
—Zubin Gala, Matunga to Andheri
Comments