On the job in Naxal land,with a prayer on his lips

It was the middle of the night,Sinha recalls,when he heard an explosion. As he stopped the train,carrying iron ore from Kirandul,a group of Maoists with pickaxes,country-made pistols,spears and bows and arrows emerged from the darkness.

“The bhailog ordered me to come down. One of them put a gun to my head. Others raised slogans of ‘Lal Salaam’. I thought they would kill me,” recalled Sinha.

The rebels handed him leaflets to give to his bosses as a “message”. They left after taking with them everything Sinha had in his cabin,including his walkie talkie.

“I call my wife as soon as I reach my destination every time to let her know I am safe,” Sinha said. He said he is under official instuctions to keep his mobile switched off in the driver’s cabin.

Sinha started driving a passenger train a year ago. The 256 km journey on the Koraput-Kirandul broad gauge line connecting the Bailadila iron ore mines in Chhattisgarh to Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh takes about 16 hours — and is fraught with risks,especially after dark or during bandhs called by Maoists. The train leaves Visakhapatnam at about 6 am,and reaches Kirandul at 9.30 pm.

For the great personal risk he takes driving the train for 20 days every month,Sinha gets a salary of Rs 23,000 per month. He has a three-year-old son,dreams of providing him with a good education.

Sinha says he understands that he has a job that has to be done irrespective of the dangers involved. Passenger trains have two drivers; the goods train he drove earlier had only one. “A goods train driver has responsibility for the goods he transports. Passenger train drivers are responsible for the safety of the people they ferry,” he says.