Rampal’s arrest hits revenue at Jind rly station

Parvesh Sharma

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Tribune News Service

Jind, December 14

The arrest of engineer-turned-guru Rampal and sealing of his Satlok Ashram in Hisar’s Barwala has hit revenue at the Jind Railway station. Though Hisar and Jind stations are equidistant from Barwala, devotees preferred Jind given its good bus connectivity with New Delhi, 115 km away.

Lakhs of devotee from Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Bihar and UP used to visit Satlok Ashram twice a month for satsang, paying lakhs as tariff. After last month’s police action, Rampal devotees have vanished. The station’s income has reportedly gone down by Rs 10-12 lakh.

“Though the exact figure will be available by the end of December, the loss is pegged at somewhere between Rs10 lakh and Rs12 lakh. During satsang days, thousands of devotees used to come here,” said station superintendent Anil Yadav.

The station receives around 5,000-6,000 passengers a day and they board trains to stations such as New Delhi, Jaipur, Sriganganagar and other stations from here. Railway officers said 12,000-15,000 passengers – many of them long route ones — used to come to the station for satsang twice a month.

Shopkeepers have also complained of loss of income. “During satsang days, I used to sell 800-1,000 tea cups as against 200-300 cups on a given day” Ram Kishan, a tea stall owner, said.

But everyone’s not complaining. Local cops have heaved a sigh of relief. With satsang cancelled, it’s back to normal policing.