Migrants jump off moving train in Jalpaiguri...hill people debarred from getting down at NJP

SNS, SILIGURI, 24 MAY: Eight migrant workers returning home in North Dinajpur is said to have pulled the emergency chain and jumped off a running train at the Belakoba railway station in Jalpaiguri district yesterday after the Railway Protection Force (RPF) did not allow them to get down at Kishanganj from a Shramik Special train, which was scheduled to go to Assam.

The Jalpaiguri administration later took them in cttstody and sent them to North Dinajpur after medical saeening, where they will be kept in institutional quarantine, an officials said.

"They were allowed to board the train in Bangalore after screening as the train left for Bengal." the official said.

Notably Hill people as well as officials of the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) has recently alleged that several stranded people, who were returning home in Shramik Special trains, were misbehaved within trains and were debarred by railway officials from getting down at the New Jalpaiguri (NJP) railway station in Siliguri. They have also alleged that most of the trains are not stopping at NJP.

Some people informed Darjeeling MP Raju Bista about the matter, while he claimed that he talked to divisional railway managers in the South and even the Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) to resolve the problem, while also informing the Railway minister of the same.

Mr Bista has also alleged that the nodal officer West Bengal should inform railway authorities about stoppages with a list of migrants and stranded people returning to Bengal in trains.

The eight migrants workers informed the Rajganj police in Jalpaiguri that they could not get down at the Kishanganj station, and finally planned to get down at NJP "As they failed to do so even there, they pulled the emergency chain and jumped out when the train slowed down at Belakoba," the official said.

Chief Public Relations Officer (CPRO), NFR Subhanan Chanda, meanwhile, said 170 Shramik Special trains have arrived in NFR areas with stranded people, and around 225000 people have reached in their respective states till date.

(Courtesy and source- The Statesman-  https://epaper.thestatesman.com/2685936/Siliguri-The-Statesman/25TH-MAY-2020#page/2/2 )