According to Railways officials, all the four lines between Matunga and CSMT have been affected, while police and Railways officials are conducting talks with the agitating railway job aspirants
Mumbai railway traffic resumed between Dadar and Matunga after hundreds of thousands of Mumbai local commuters faced difficulties today, with scores of agitating students blocking rail traffic, including suburban services between the two stations, demanding jobs in the Railways. The agitating students, according to a Central Railway official, blocked the rail track at 7 in the morning today, forcing the Railways to stop the suburban and express trains in the affected section between Matunga and Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT). The agitating Railways job aspirants were still present at the spot where they have been protesting, between Matunga and CSMT.
Railways officials have told a national daily that they are running special trains for the Kurla station in the down direction. They added that they are diverting railway traffic from Dadar station in the up direction.
According to Railways officials, the entire four lines between Matunga and CSMT have been affected, while police and Railways officials are conducting talks with the agitating railway job aspirants.
Students shouting slogans against the Railways held up placards demanding a one-time settlement from GM quota and said that they were demanding jobs from the government.
Meanwhile, the BEST has deployed extra buses to ferry commuters to and fro from various points like Dadar, Matunga, Kurla, Sion and other stations. The protests threw out of gear the entire suburban and long distance railway schedules in Mumbai, Thane, Palghar, Raigad, Pune with commuters stranded for hours.
The opposition Congress and Nationalist Congress Party have demanded a discussion on the issue in the Maharashtra Legislature on a priority basis.
Travelling by train to and in Mumbai? Here are the top 10 developments surrounding the 'rail roko' protest by agitating railway job aspirants:
1) Railway services resume: The Railways traffic between Dadar and Matunga in Mumbai resumed after hours of agitation, according to news agencies. The agitating railway job aspirants were still present at the spot where they have been protesting.
2) Rail blockade disrupts normal life: The rail-blockade, police caning, and retaliatory stone-throwing caused a virtual paralysis of the Central Railway suburban train services. For nearly three hours, services were severely disrupted as protestors squatted and laid down on the railway tracks between Matunga and Dadar.
The 'rail roko' led to a cascading effect even on the Western Railway with all trains running packed to capacity, the roads linking Mumbai with the mainland, and the two highways slicing through the country's commercial capital.
The protest comes at a time when more than 4.5 million commuters were badly hit for the second consecutive day following a strike called on Monday by drivers of cab aggregators and app-based taxis that disrupted in Mumbaikars' schedules.
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