West Bengal Govt likely to meet Railway officials tomorrow on local train resumption: Sources

The meeting is likely to be held at state secretariat, Nabanna, in the presence of  Bengal Chief Secretary Alapan Bandyopadhyay at 5 pm. tomorrow (Monday), according to sources.

Earlier on Saturday, following a scuffle between the Railway Protection Force (RPF) personnel and hundreds of passengers gathered at Howrah railway station to board "staff-special" local trains, the state government sent a letter to the Indian Railways asking for a discussion on the resumption of a limited number of local suburban trains in a guarded manner on an urgent basis. 

"We could sit and discuss how a few pairs of trains could be run locally in the morning and in the afternoon hours to serve the general commuters at large," H.K. Dwivedi wrote in his letter to the Railways.

"Obviously, all the norms of physical distancing and public hygiene protocol have to be maintained for plying these trains in public interest," the senior IAS official added.

Criticising the RPF's actions against the general commuters staging demonstrations at different railway stations under Easteren and South Eastern divisions when denied boarding 'railway staff-special' local trains, state home secretary Dwivedi wrote, "You have since resumed suburban train services. It is painful to notice that you are running these trains for your staff only, while many other sections of governmental service providers and members of society at large are denied these services."

"We are anguished that your central forces have used coercive means to deal with members of the public today in railway stations, which is deplorable. It has come to our knowledge that your railway police used force to disperse people in difficulty," he further wrote in the one-page letter.

Meanwhile, senior officials of the Eastern Railway claimed that they had written to the Bengal government earlier in the mid-October asking for a meeting to resume local train services with SOPs, but received no response from the state.

Since the nationwide lockdown was declared in the end of March, the railway had suspended all suburban train services and has been running few pairs of railway staff-only trains in all divisions.