HYDERABAD: Hundreds of passengers were seen squatting on footpaths outside the Secunderabad railway station after their trains were either rescheduled or cancelled. Most of them were women with infants and toddlers, senior citizens and students, who were caught unawares by the violent protest that engulfed the railway station.
Lakshmi, a resident of a village in Nanded district of Maharashtra, had come along with four other women and a toddler to Hyderabad on some work. She was supposed to board a train at 12.15 pm to return home.
Lakshmi received a message from the IRCTC that her train was rescheduled to 6.15 pm. She, along with her companions and the toddler had no option but to sit on the footpath outside the railway station. The women formed a circle around the two-year-old toddler while the baby slept.
Shoma, a girl who was with her father was visibly anguished after she learned that the Falaknuma Express which they had to board to go to Bhubaneswar, was rescheduled to 6.30 pm. A little while later, it was announced that the train was cancelled altogether. She, like hundreds of other passengers, faced the possibility of having to spend the night on the footpath, if not allowed to enter the railway station.
Even after the violence abated, police prevented passengers from entering the premises due to security reasons. It was only at around 3 pm that people were let in one by one, that too depending on the timings of their train’s departure. Many had come down to the railway station to cancel their train tickets.