Sealing snatched his livelihood, BRT his life

After MCD sealed his shop, Ram Sharan took up a job on the corridor. But worse was in store, reports Vijaita Singh.

His fate had taken a sad turn a few months earlier. It was sealed on Sunday when Ram Sharan was killed on the corridor of chaos.

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Sharan had joined the Delhi Integrated Multi-Modal Transit System (DIMTS) after a municipal body ordered the sealing of his shop in November. On Sunday night, a chartered bus speeding in the wrong lane killed the 52-year-old commuter facilitator near the Pushp Vihar bus stop.

The father of four daughters and a son earned Rs 3,500 a month helping people alight from buses on the BRT corridor. The only earning member in the family, Sharan had joined a security agency after the closing down of his provisions store in South Delhi’s Sangam Vihar.

Sharan was caught off guard by a bus that rammed into a railing, which hit him on his head and chest. His son-in-law Gajendra, also working with the same security agency, rushed him to the Jai Prakash Narain Trauma Centre at AIIMS. He died a few hours later due to excessive bleeding. Police said that the bus went towards Chirag Dilli after the accident. The driver has not been arrested yet.

“The last few months have been very tough for our family. First, our shop was sealed. It was a small business and our only source of income. My husband took up a job with the security agency. He had fallen ill standing in the sun for hours. So, last month, he asked for a night duty. Now, the new job has killed him,” said Jyoti, Ram Sharan’s widow.

In a separate incident, a 50-year-old patient of arthritis was crushed to death by a Blueline bus on the BRT stretch near the Sheikh Sarai traffic intersection. Suffering from chronic joint pain, Mewa Devi, a resident of Devli village, was crushed under the wheels of a bus, while trying to board the bus bay.

“The victim was overweight and suffering from joint pain. She couldn’t climb the one and a half feet high bus bay in time. A speeding bus killed her,” said a police officer.