After three days, Aujla again inspects railway station

Neeraj Bagga

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, June 18

After inspecting the railway station three days ago, MP Gurjeet Singh Aujla once again conducted a surprise check of the railway station on Monday.

During the checking, he found on-duty Deputy Station Master Rajesh Sharma sleeping in the office of the Station Master.

He reached the station at 3:30 am to check the changes he had suggested during his last visit. “I asked the officials and companies looking after cleanliness to mend their ways, but no improvement was seen,” he said.

“What to talk of local passenger trains, premiere trains such as Shatabdi and Sachkhand are in a messy condition with stinking toilets and dirty rakes,” Aujla said.

“Toilets were found blocked in all passenger trains. It seemed that the contractor did not pay any attention to the cleanliness issue as he knew the loopholes in the system. The contractors were fined and blacklisted on a number of occasions, but they change the names of the firm and come up again,” the MP said.

Aujla said he could not even tell the condition of pantry cars in trains.

The MP added that he would meet the General Manager, Northern Railways; and Minister of State for Railways and try to get the responsibility fixed in this matter.

Replying to a query, he said the system had been deteriorating for a long and he could not guarantee of a quick change, but he was doing his duty sincerely.

Talking about non-availability of power hotline at the city railway station, the MP said he wasn’t aware of the matter, but he would talk to the authorities concerned to get it resolved soon.

He inspected Nagpur Express, Amritsar-New Delhi Shatabdi, Amritsar-Pathankot Passenger train, Amritsar-Nanded Express and Amritsar-Haridwar Jan Shatabdi.