Overnight rains in Mumbai and its surrounding areas have played havoc with Central Railway train services in Mumbai, affecting thousands of commuters who depend on the railway network to ferry them to work and back.

Ambika Hanchate, a reader, narrates her experience at Thane railway station today:

"At around 9.15 am, when I reached the railway foot over-bridge at Thane station, it was crowded. Some trains were cancelled, while others were running late. Taking advantage of the crowd, some men were groping the women, and a few pregnant women were feeling suffocated in the crush but they couldn't even move. Around 10.10 am, when I managed to reach platform number 10, I saw two RPF personnel seated there busy reading the newspaper. I walked up to them and asked them why there wasn't a single railway personnel to manage the crowds.

One of them told me the RPF were busy with yoga day celebrations. When I asked him if yoga day was more important than the security of common people, he replied that yoga day was more important.
 
"I thought of approaching the station master. While crossing the bridge I saw three more RPF men strolling there and I asked them what they were doing there when the force was required on the other bridge. They replied that they had been given a duty on this bridge -- and let me tell you, there were no crowds on that bridge at all.

"There were many commuters around who were clicking photographs and recording the whole scene but only two of them joined me in lodging a complaint.

"When I explained the incident to the station master, he told me to go to the RPF in-charge. When I went there I found that the officers were busy chatting with each other. One of them was the person whom I had encountered before.

"When I tried to explain the situation to the RPF incharge, he officer didnt even listen to the whole thing but started barking at me, saying that only five RPF men were available and how was he expected to handle such things. I have got lots of other work to do, he said.

"Finally, he told a woman officer to help get me out of the office.

"I tried telling him that one of his men was busy reading a newspaper and told me that yoga day was important, to which the other officer said, 'Did you really if see he was from the RPF? They said I must be confused, and that he must be from the Mumbai police or the Government Railway Police.

"When I went back to the station master he asked me to go to the RPF headquarters in Mumbai and register a complaint with the commissioner."


Image: Crowds spill over on to the tracks at Diva station to protest the recurrent breakdown in suburban train services.