Mumbai: BJP leaders board local trains without tickets in protest

BJP state unit chief Chandrakant Patil with other party members protested at Sion station. Pic/Suresh Karkera

Several Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders protested by travelling on local trains forcibly on Friday, demanding that those who are fully vaccinated, be allowed to travel on them. The idea that was first floated by mid-day in May 2021, that all those vaccinated with both doses be allowed to travel by Mumbai local trains, has now caught momentum with it being discussed by the passenger associations and even by the state government.

During the agitation on Friday, many leaders were arrested and penalised for protesting and forcibly travelling. Protests were held at Churchgate, Sion, Dahisar, Kandivli, Andheri and Thane.

"We sat in the train and they deliberately switched off the lights inside it and cancelled it. I took another train and continued to journey till Charni Road. My team was later fined Rs 260 for travelling without a ticket. We are just echoing the sentiments of the city's populace," Maharashtra legislative council opposition leader from BJP, Pravin Darekar said.

'Why trains and not planes?'

He said the government was allowing people to travel by buses and other modes of transport, but not by local trains. "People who have got both the vaccines can even travel by plane, but local train services are still not open for them," he said.

BJP members protest at Kandivli station. Pic/Anurag Ahire

Members of the TV Journalists' Association alleged that the Railway Protection Force (RPF) pushed some reporters and camerapersons and disrupted their work at Charni Road station when they tried to cover the protest. BJP state unit chief Chandrakant Patil, who staged a protest at Sion station, said, "The financial condition of low-income groups has worsened due to the pandemic. If these people are fully vaccinated, then they should be allowed to board the local trains."

'Following govt orders'

Railway officials said that they were just following the Maharashtra government's orders and the public will be given access to trains as soon as the state government grants permission for it.

Critics, however, said that it was strange that while the central BJP leadership and ministry was asking everyone to be careful in anticipation of the third wave of COVID-19, the local BJP leadership was responding in exactly the opposite manner.

Meanwhile, on Thursday, the Bombay High Court asked the Maharashtra government to think about identifying and separating those who have taken both doses of COVID-19 vaccine from the rest, and provide a ‘common card' to these people, to allow them unrestricted travel and work.

The court said in some western nations, people used such cards for access to public transport.

"You can have a common card that can be used as an ID for everything allowed to the fully vaccinated, even foreign travel," the HC said. The court directed the Maharashtra government to file an affidavit by August 12, submitting the proposed plan for permitting fully vaccinated citizens the use of local trains in the city.