North India Statesman
[ad_1]
News India Live, Digital Desk: It is festival time and everyone wants to return to their home, their families. But a disturbing picture of how difficult this path of returning home can be has emerged from Surat city of Gujarat. Here, such a crowd of people buying tickets for trains going to UP-Bihar gathered at the railway station that the line became 2 kilometers long.
Imagine, thousands of people, including women, children and the elderly, standing in queues for hours in the hope of getting just one ticket. This scene was seen on Saturday at Surat Railway Station, where there was a huge crowd of people going to their homes for Diwali and Chhath Puja.
Why are the circumstances like this?
Surat is considered the hub of textiles and diamonds, where lakhs of people from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar come to work. Diwali and the great festival of Chhath Puja that comes immediately after it, is the biggest festival of the year for these people. This is the time when they leave to meet their families after working hard throughout the year.
This time too, when ticket booking started, all the confirmed seats were filled within no time. Now people are left with only Tatkal ticket or unreserved (general) ticket, for which a battle is going on.
Are Railways prepared enough?
Although Indian Railways has run many special trains in view of the festival crowd, but this preparation is also proving inadequate in front of this huge crowd. The same story is repeated every year. Leave alone getting a seat in the trains, reaching the ticket counter becomes a big challenge.
This 2 kilometer long line is not just a crowd, it shows the helplessness and yearning of millions of people who live hundreds of kilometers away, leaving their homes and families in search of livelihood. He has only one wish – to somehow get a ticket and be able to celebrate the festival with his loved ones.
