August 8: Teja Vaidya and Varsha Tambe seem to have set the pace for vociferous protests in suburban Mumbai. After the mass agitation that the two whipped up yesterday, following the rescheduling of the Central Railway timetable, today women commuters in Mulund started another agitation.As if in a sequel to yesterday's outburst, women commuters boarding the train at Thane embittered by the prospect of a long journey without a seat, unseated one Neeta Panchal, a Mulund encroacher, beat her up and attempted to push her out of the train, soon after the 9.17 fast rolled in at the Thane station. Similar treatment was meted out to some others, allegedly with the tacit support of a few men who pushed themselves in the women's compartment.The women who had boarded the train at Mulund to journey to Thane, alighted at Mulund, on their way to CST, and called on the station master to seek justice, after which the train was allowed to proceed. That is when hoards of men poured onto the tracks at to block the train from moving. As the DCP, zone six, Sanjay Bharve said, "The impediments on the tracks were live flesh and bones", as opposed to yesterday's concrete and wood.The huge mob squatting on the tracks was then joined by Kirit Somaiya, BJP city unit president and an MLA from Mulund at 10 am. The agitators stayed put till 2 pm. Services were stalled for five hours. Somaiya took up the commuters' cause with the Mulund Station Manager, Yadram.He and eight other affected women then proceeded to meet the Central Railway Divisional Railway Manager, Rakesh Chopra, to demand reverting to the old timetable. They also pleaded for an additional fast local during the peak hours from Thane and computerisation at the season ticket window at Mulund.But for the untoward incident earlier at Thane and incidents of stone throwing, the demonstration was largely peaceful. Local trains operated between Thane and Kalyan and CST and Kurla. "About 100 suburban locals were cancelled due to the agitation," said Chopra. Outstation passengers also bore the brunt of today's agitation, as the services came to a halt with the Sahyadri, Deccan Queen, Pragati and a Manmad passenger being stopped near Kalyan. "A major rescheduling will have to be done," Chopra said. Later, Somaiya and the women's group met the DRM at CST at 3 pm. The meeting was of little consequence.Chopra felt that though a few were inconvenienced by the revised timetable, it has been observed that the punctuality of trains have improved. About yesterday's incident, Rakesh Saxena, CR chief PRO, said, "Not getting a seat at Thane was hardly an issue to fight for, for are there no trains (15 slow and four fast) originating from Thane every ten minutes in the peak hours from, 7 am to 10 am."According to Somaiya the only long term solution to the entire suburban railway commuters problem lies in a separate railway board for Mumbai. The women from Mulund also demanded that they be provided police security between Mulund and Thane to prevent further attacks. To avail an assurance for this, Somaiya led them to the deputy CM, Gopinath Munde. However, the meeting did not take place. Added to this, a team of eight harried Dombivli commuters also made an unscheduled but calm presentation before the DRM immediately after he finished with the group from Mulund after 4 pm. Their complaints were on the issue of long gaps between each Dombivili train according to the new time table.
