E-Paper
Prayagraj: Protests against Agnipath scheme affect over a dozen trains
Over a dozen trains got affected due to the violent protests by youths against the Agnipath scheme of the central government at different railway stations under East Central Railway (ECR) here on Thursday
Over a dozen trains got affected due to the violent protests by youths against the Agnipath scheme of the central government at different railway stations under East Central Railway (ECR) here on Thursday.
Primarily affected were the trains going towards Deen Dayal Upadhyay Junction and the ones coming to Prayagraj Junction.
Similar protests were also reported from three different locations under North Central Railways (NCR).
Protests were reported from Birla Nagar railway station of Gwalior where a group of youths entered the station premises and indulged in vandalism which resulted in damage to railway property. Protest was also held around 6km away from Aligarh Junction but because of the presence of Railway Protection Force (RPF) along with Government Railway Police (GRP) and local police the youths could not come any closer, informed NCR officials.
“A protest was also staged near the Fatehpur railway station on Thursday but prompt action by the RPF, GRP and local police contained the situation,” said chief public relation officer (CPRO), NCR, Shivam Sharma.
Meanwhile, IG, RPF (NCR), Ravindra Verma said, “We have deployed sufficient forces at all the stations and are keeping a strict vigil on the situation and ready to deal with any protest.”
Although now the situation is under control, trains are running late by several hours. Meanwhile, Railway Protection Force (RPF) of NCR have taken preventive measures to meet any untoward incident resulting from protest.
Earlier in the day, around a dozen trains had to be stopped at different stations as a preventive step. “As soon as we were informed about the disturbances, we halted a number of trains going towards Deen Dayal Upadhyay Junction as a preventive step,” said the CPRO.
Likewise, several of the trains coming to Prayagraj Junction from the neighbouring ECR are running late. For example, 12791, Danapur-Secunderabad express was running late by over one hour as the train was expected to arrive at 9.30 at Prayagraj junction against its scheduled arrival time of 7.45pm.
