Title - Passengers suffer as farmers block rail traffic

Amritsar: Rail passengers have to bear the brunt of protesting farmers, who blocked the Amritsar-Delhi rail route for over three hours today.Pilgrims and tourists were the worst affected as they had to wait for arduous long hours at the railway station. A pilgrim from Delhi, RN Singh, said he along with his wife and two minor children was waiting for the arrival of their train to return to Delhi. Being an employee with a private concern at the National Capital he wanted to utilise the holidays of Holi by paying obeisance at the Golden Temple. "Everything had gone smooth but the agitation had made them victims without any fault of theirs," he said.He said his family had stayed at Mata Ganga Niwas, an inn being run by the SGPC in the Golden Temple complex. He said they checked out at 12 noon and after staying sometime at Harmandar Sahib arrived at the railway station at 2.15 pm. Before moving to the railway station he tried to contact at the railway inquiry over phone several times but in vain. His family was shocked to learn that the railway officials were not aware of the fresh time of departure of their train, Shan-E-Punjab.His wife Sonia said it was arduous to wait at the station while sitting on the stairs at platform number 2, which has limited seating space. She was more concerned about her sons Ekam (6), and Antarjot (4), as they had to attend their school tomorrow morning. She said her family visited the Golden Temple to pay their respects at least once a year. She said the government must sensitise people not to block a vital installation like Railways, which is used by common citizens. She said there were umpteen ways to put across their concern and issues than to harass common public this way.

Another passenger Ajay said his family had to join a maternal uncle during his farewell at Delhi, but the waiting period at the railway station seemed to be unending. He said he visited the inquiry window many a

time but no fresh timing had been announced. He felt that there must be a system in place to alert the passenger before such a blockade. Pointing towards a large number of passengers at the railway station he said then they would have come as per the schedule time of their trains and needed not to overburden the limited infrastructure at the railway station.

Another passenger BS Rana said there was no toilet facility at the platform number 2 and the persons in need have to cross all over to the platform number 1 to utilise the service.