Before the first phase of the Assam assembly elections, Lumding railway station witnessed passengers’ fury on Saturday morning. The daily passenger train connecting Guwahati to Silchar via Lumding was stopped by hundreds of protesting passengers for almost five hours. In addition, three more trains were stopped: The Bramhaputra Mail, Nagaland Express, and Awadh Assam Express.
In light of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam, registering one’s vote and proving one’s citizenship is of utmost importance to the common people of the region.
One of the commuters, Uttam Basak, a 32-year-old man who works as a salesman in Dimapur, Nagaland said:
I want to reach Karimganj so that I can vote. This NRC fiasco has harassed us enough, and I don’t want to miss being at home to vote. But we only have one train, and it can’t accommodate so many passengers. That’s why everyone decided to stop the trains to bring this issue to everyone’s notice.Uttam Basak
Desperate to Reach Home
Many passengers complained that despite having limited seats in the train, the rail authorities sold three times the number of tickets without really increasing the number of compartments. Confirmed reservations hardly elicited seats since the train could barely handle the huge influx of commuters.
The railway track connecting Silchar in southern Assam to Lumding in central Assam has only one passenger train daily. With the polling day drawing close, passengers desperate to reach home found themselves in a state of ‘hara-kiri’ with hundreds being unable to board the train.
Only One Passenger Train
It must be noted that this railway track serves as a lifeline for southern Assam, Tripura, Mizoram, and Manipur. Thanks to the difficult terrain across the Barail mountains, the Lumding-Badarpur portion had to bear with metre gauge track for many decades. It was only at the end of 2015 that a new broad gauge track was thrown open.
Kumudini Biswas who was bound for Silchar with her family says:
Even on a regular day, this train is always jam-packed. This train is the only safe way to commute on such a difficult route, but we have been given only one train daily. With the election, everyone wants to reach home, and this has only increased our woes. It’s even difficult to breathe, forget getting a place to stand.Kumudini Biswas
“I have to reach Ramkrishna Nagar so that I can vote. Otherwise, the government will harass us by declaring us Bangladeshis,” added Debabrata Paul who works as a teacher in Diphu.
‘A True Citizen of India’
Due to the stranded trains, lack of electricity and water, a passenger named Nityanand Chamua fainted and had to be immediately hospitalised at Lumding Railway Hospital.
After almost five hours, extra coaches were added to the train at noon to pacify the passengers, and the train was finally on its way to Silchar, where casting a vote would declare one a true citizen of India.
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)