Chaos at city rly station

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 18

Complete lawlessness was witnessed at the Chandigarh railway station for the second consecutive day as taxi operators armed with swords, baseball bats and hockey sticks laid siege to the bus stand area of the station for over two hours.

The taxi operators have been protesting against the Government Railway Police (GRP) for not taking action against the auto-rickshaw drivers who had been preventing them from picking up and dropping off passengers at the station.

Reflecting on the GRP’s failure to take action, the armed taxi operators thrashed three railway passengers assuming them to be informers of the auto-rickshaw operators with whom they had a brawl yesterday at the station. One of the taxi operators snatched the cell phone of one of the passengers waiting at the bus stand, thinking that he was making a video of their protest.

Interestingly, when the GRP failed to control the taxi operators at the station who were not allowing any passenger to come to the bus stand, they began pushing the passengers back waiting at the bus stop. Irked passengers who failed to get any mode of transport at the station blamed the police and the local administration for not controlling the situation.

At noon, around 300 taxi drivers marched in protest in front of the Cremation Ground in Industrial Area Phase I. The GRP force barricaded the entry point of the railway station after which they sat in protest at the railway bus stand.

Suresh Kaushik, DSP, Ambala GRP, said GRP official Manisha against whom corruption allegation was levelled by taxi drivers would be removed from the station and investigation would be done by the department.