Railway service affected

Political agitations affect railway service

Maneesh Pandey | New Delhi, March 26, 201

. The protesters have threatened to cut off essential supplies to Delhi in the coming days such as milk, water, vegetables and petroleum products if their demands are not met by the government.

A string of political agitations has virtually stopped the Indian Railways in its tracks.

As Jats threaten a siege of Delhi, the damages calculated by the railways have already amounted to, on an average, 10 trains getting cancelled daily.

According to the railways, 3,611 trains were cancelled and 3,100 more diverted between April 2010 and this March because of political agitations. This not only resulted in a loss of Rs 1,700 crore to the railways but dented the on-time performance of trains by 30 per cent.

The protests were spread far and wide across the country - from Rajasthan (where the Gujjars agitated) and Andhra Pradesh (where supporters are demanding a separate Telangana state) to Jharkhand and West Bengal (where the writ of Maoists run), and Haryana and Uttar Pradesh (where the Jats are agitating).

The agitations affected more than 7,000 trains between April 2010 and March 2011. Not to be missed, the movement of more than 12,000 trains was also affected during the same period because of law and order problems.