Ludhiana rly station reeling under scarcity of water, mafia blamed

Kuldip Bhatia
Ludhiana, June 10

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The railway station, one of the busiest junctions in the region, is reeling under scarcity of water, all with erratic functioning of water coolers, missing taps and disrupted supply of drinking water at various platforms.

While insiders point towards the ‘water mafia’ (comprising some railway venders and colluding railway employees) behind ‘created’ shortage of drinking water to boost sale of bottled mineral water, railway authorities stoutly deny the allegation.

Quite a few daily passengers alleged that many taps were found missing at one time or the other at the drinking water stands on railway platforms, while the supply of drinking water was also disrupted by vested interests at the time of arrival of trains to force passengers to purchase bottled drinking water in extremely hot weather conditions. To make matters worse, water coolers installed at the railway platforms to provide cold drinking water to passengers operate in an erratic manner.

That the railway authorities are indifferent, if not apathetic to the misery of passengers due to inadequate or erratic supply of drinking water at the railway platforms is evident from the fact that at least three water taps at drinking water stands on platform numbers 6-7 were missing for the last three days and the pipes were plugged in to discontinue water flow.

While a railway employee attributed the missing taps to venders, railway officials said pilferage of water taps and other fixtures by unscrupulous passengers, scrap collectors or even residents living alongside railway lines, were a routine affair, while claiming that efforts were made for the immediate replacement of taps or other missing items.

‘No water mafia, pilferage of taps a routine affair’

Ludhiana railway station director Abhinav Singla said: “There is no such thing as water mafia and pilferage of taps is a routine affair at such a large railway station. As soon as the missing taps or fixtures are noticed, the engineering wing is directed to replace the same immediately. At times, replacement takes some time if the material is not available in store and it has to be procured.” He ruled out any underhand tactics by venders to boost the sale of bottled mineral water as all venders were required to sell only ‘rail neer’ brand and the sale of other brands of bottled water was not permitted within the railway premises.

‘Refreshment room closed for renovation’

Singla denied rumours to the effect that refreshment room at the railway platform number 1 was ordered to be closed after an inspection by a team of the IRCTC due to suspected quality of food items. The inspection team found certain deficiencies in flooring and fittings, which the contractor was asked to remove. “In other words, the refreshment room has been closed temporarily for renovation and will soon reopen,” he said.