CPM makes room for itself on platform

When the High Court directed railway authorities to make room for passengers on platforms and trains by getting rid of unlicenced hawkers...

When the High Court directed railway authorities to make room for passengers on platforms and trains by getting rid of unlicenced hawkers, it could not have known that the CPIM has already made rooms for itself. Literally.

Check out platform number 1 of the busy Dum Dum Junction. At least 750 suburban and numerous long distance trains pass through the junction daily. It is also one interchange for the underground Metro Rail.

On platform 1 stands a 14 feet x 6 feet brick and mortar room, built by CPIM cadres on railway property. Furnished with a TV, chairs and a table, plus portraits of the Marxist pantheon, the room functions as a CITU office. On the facing platform is another room, the office of the CITU-affiliated Railway Mazdoor Union. Both structures also double up as recreation rooms for leaders of the hawkers8217; unions.

During evening rush hour, when thousands of commuters jostle on platform 1 to catch a train, the CITU structures leave a channel barely 8 feet wide on what is already a narrow platform.

Barun Mullick, Superintendent of the Government Railway Police GRP, the state government force that is in charge of railway law 038; order, said: 8220;I have to inquire into the illegal structure you are taking about. It is true that a number of such offices and shops have mushroomed on the platforms of almost every station. Periodically, we conduct drives and demolish such structures. Punishment is nominal since these are treated as non-FIR cases.8221;

While CITU has offices at almost all stations, these structures are usually not on the platform. At Dum Dum, the party office was a temporary structure made of planks even a few years ago. With the GRP and authorities ignoring the structure, cadre turned it into a permanent room, using railway bricks and materials.

An office-bearer of the hawkers8217; union vouches for the utility of the platform office. 8220;What is wrong with the office on a platform? No one becomes a hawker by choice; it is unemployment that drove us to this profession,8221; says Himanshu Saha, secretary of the Dum Dum local committee of the Railway Hawkers Union.

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8220;This is not only a union office; it has a host of functions. We coordinate the activities of around 400 hawkers on the Dum Dum line, both on the platform and running in trains. People even collect lost items from us in the office. The railway police is of no use and we help out the people through this office,8221; Saha said. As he spoke, around 20 hawkers were sitting inside the office, with banners and flags piled in one corner.

Commuters like Abhijit Roy are not impressed. 8220;The office is right in the middle of the platform, apart from the fact that the subway opens near it. When people in hordes come out of a train it is difficult for them to steer clear of the structure which takes up half of the platform. But since the union is very strong, no one dares to complain,8221; he said.