It was ridiculous to troll Mr Raj Thackeray when he commented on Elphinstone Road’s stampede & blamed migrants. What I have been noticing in recent years tells the similar story. For me, it has always been too hard to commute towards SoBo from Western suburbs. While I was staying in Bhayander, I had first class ticket to travel & left home early before locals get over crowded. So it was easier to commute. Then I moved Virar & I still had first class ticket but I could not even get in the compartment. So here is how I changed commuting from Virar every now & then
1)
Tried to catch 7:40, 8:00, 8:09 but failed to
get in
2)
Then caught 7:02 Borivali local comes from Dahanu
& changed from Bhayander
3)
BJP came in power & I lost first class
ticket. Commuters increased in 2nd class & I caught further
local from Borivali
4)
Even from Borivali, crowd increased & I
started journey very early & caught 6:45 slow local
5)
New local was started towards Bandra @ 7:48
& I selected that one
6)
One day my throat tangled in bag & I left
to commute from that local
7)
I again started commuting from 6:45 local
8)
New local started @ 7:48 for Andheri. Currently
I am commuting by it.
 |
| ANDHERI |
I have seen
several stations where crowd has drastically been increased. From Bhayander,
from Virar, from Borivali & just few months ago Andheri remained quite
empty but now it is also seeing major crowd. I was catching either 8:49
Churchgate slow or 8:54 CSMT. Both remained empty till Ville Parle or
Santacruz. Sometimes I even caught 8:43 slow & got a seat on time too but today
situation is completely changed. At Andheri, there is a similar crowd like
Borivali now. Either take Western or Central, both lines are seeing huge rush. This
is not a good thing because in a very less time, the crowd has been increased.
My current local in Andheri reaches platform number 8 & its FOB has similar
condition like Elphinstone FOB. Only couple of days ago, there were lots of
police to handle crowd but today, there was no one. I was being pushed, women
were screaming.
What can be the
factors behind this much crowd? Migrants, demonetisation, inflation, lowest
GDP, neighboring state’s situation or remote areas where farmers committing
suicide? Well factor of migrants is the biggest among all because people come
to seek more income in big cities. After demonetisation, lots of small scale
industries & unorganized sectors have been shut down, lower GDP has broken
backbone of construction sector & neighboring state Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh
& UP are not having business friendly atmosphere. Come on, we are not on
the right track. To run a country, a proper planning and knowledge is
important. Currently we are ruled by illiterates & power hungry people.
Think Twice! Raj Thackeray is correct & this is definitely going to hurt
Mumbai in a long run & stampede like Elphinstone will be repeated now and
then because Mumbai is becoming a human Bomb awaiting for a Blast!
