Tribals create fracas at railway station

HUNDREDS OF tribals, led by Gondwana Gantantra Party (GGP), created scenes at the railway station here on Sunday before entering inside the three trains for Delhi where a massive protest has been organised at Jantarmantar by the GGP on Monday to press for the tabling of Forest Bill 2005, which confers forestland rights on the tribals.

HUNDREDS OF tribals, led by Gondwana Gantantra Party (GGP), created scenes at the railway station here on Sunday before entering inside the three trains for Delhi where a massive protest has been organised at Jantarmantar by the GGP on Monday to press for the tabling of Forest Bill 2005, which confers forestland rights on the tribals.

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These tribals, mostly without tickets, stood on the tracks in front of Mahakoshal Express, sometime before it was schedule to chug off for Delhi after they were denied entry into the reserved and unreserved coaches.

However, the RPF had to budge before the pressure of the tribals, who entered inside the coaches of the three trains - Mahakoshal, Gondwana and Sampark Kranti Express and left for New Delhi.

When contacted, West Central Railway Divisional Security Commissioner Abhishek Kumar admitted that the tribal, who did not have tickets, entered Delhi bound trains. But, he said that only those tribals, who had the reservations, were allowed to enter the reserved coaches.

He said that our priority was to ensure that no untoward incident took place at the station. We also ensured that no inconvenience was caused to the passengers in the reserved coaches, he said.