KOLKATA: Senior Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury has written to Railway Minister Piyush Goyal, urging him to take steps to resume local train services in West Bengal.
Chowdhury, the leader of the Congress party in Lok Sabha, said regular conflicts between common people and railway police are happening as locals are not allowed to avail the special services being operated for the railway employees.
Referring to the recent clash between passengers and railway police at Howrah station, the state Congress president said the "flak and indignation from the common people" could have been averted if the railways and the state government had "applied their minds" given the desperation of the passengers.
"The time is ripe enough to explore the possibilities of bouncing back local train services without compromising the COVID protocols. I do appeal to the sagacity of the greatest public transporter of India to indulge in serious contemplation in consultation with the state government of West Bengal to restore local train services as fast as you can and thus obliged," he said in the letter.
The West Bengal government and the Eastern Railway are scheduled to hold a meeting on Monday to discuss the resumption of the local train services.