Bangalore:
Thousands of passengers arriving and departing from the Bangalore city railway station are being put to a lot of hardship due to lack of basic amenities and poor maintenance.
The station, which is one of the major stations in the country, receives about 212 trains and more than two lakh passengers every day. However, the condition of the city station is so appalling that passengers' needs are not catered to by the authorities.
Several passengers, who stay inside the premises for longer hours to change trains, do not find a proper restroom on the platforms. Even if they were to find one, it would be full of filth.
Added to this is the air-conditioned class waiting room, which has a common toilet for men and women.
Upon entering the station, one can notice long queues at the ticket counters, with four out of the six closed.
The general enquiry counter hardly functions with barely anyone around to reply to the queries.
The lobby in the station hardly has any space, and people are found sleeping on the ground, with even stray dogs roaming around.
There are also no proper seating arrangements for the passengers.
To highlight all these, members of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday tried to lay siege to express their displeasure over its poor maintenance.
Addressing a press conference there BJP spokesperson S Prakash said, "The station lacks any emergency services. The recent incident in which a jawan was killed at the station could have been avoided had there been an ambulance in the proximity."
"There is an absence of luggage scanners, CCTV cameras, metal detectors or any form of security system. Bangalore is high on the terror radar and the railway station does not even have any precautionary devices installed," said Prakash.
"This place is like an 18th century station. It is in a pathetic condition and it surprises me that nothing has been done. There is so much importance given to improve the airport, which is used by about two to three lakh people a year, whereas the railway station, which is used by two lakh people a day, is being neglected to such a terrible extent," Prakash said.
He also lashed out at the Union minister of state for railway, KH Muniyappa for not visiting the station from the time he took over as minister and ignoring its plight.
When the BJP members tried to take mediapersons inside the station to highlight the ground reality, the police prevented them from doing so. This caused a ruckus between the two parties as the BJP members shouted in protest.
The party said that it will hold protests before the divisional railway manager's office if substantial remedial action is not taken.
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