Watch: BJP veteran Laxmi Kanta Chawla slams Modi and Goyal for railway passengers’ plight

BJP veteran Laxmi Kanta Chawla has a message for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Railway Minister Piyush Goyal: Focus on existing train services.

In a viral video the BJP veteran castigates the declining standards of the Indian Railways and the poor plight of passengers. The PM and the Railway Minister would do better if they stop obsessing over the Bullet Train and put their heads together to improve conditions in the existing trains, she says in the video.

Chawla, a former Punjab health minister known for her austere lifestyle and honesty, told NH that she was indeed pained to see the plight of common passengers when she recently travelled from Amritsar to Ayodhya.

The Saryu-Yamuna Express train, which was earlier known as the ‘flying train’ was nine hours late, she recalls. “PM and the Railway Minister should take pity on the innocent passengers who were not even informed about the delay by Railway authorities,” she recalls.

Venting her disgust over conditions in the train and railway stations, Chawla says conditions are so pathetic that passengers did not feel secure while travelling. Basic health facilities and milk for children were not available in the train or at stations. There was no provision of potable water and food. Toilets were unusable, and the seats were broken.

Even the much-publicized telephone help numbers 138, 139 etc. did not function and complaints sent to Piyush Goyal’s email account failed to yield results, she claimed.

She quipped that situation in the train reminded her of the Hindi proverb, ‘Andher Nagari, Chaupat Raja’ (a dark land ruled by a hopeless king). Chawla, who is not known to mince her words, alleged that corruption clearly is pervasive in the Railways as she saw Travelling Ticket Examiners (TTEs) selling tickets to the ticketless passengers with impunity.

Chawla urged the Railways Minister to travel as a common passenger in trains to get a first-hand feel of what passengers suffer.

Accusing Indian Railways of showering all their attention on superfast trains that cater to the elite, Chawla felt that the middle and lower class passengers have been left to fend for themselves. Labourers, farmers, soldiers and their families, she saw, suffered in silence the lack of basic amenities.

“It does not feel like ‘acche din’ while travelling by train. Who is enjoying ‘acche din’? We do not know. But certainly, there is no ‘acche din’ for the common man”, she quipped.