The New Delhi-Ranchi Rajdhani Express, which remained stranded at Daltonganj Station for several hours on Thursday, due to the ongoing agitation of Tana Bhagats at Tori Junction, reached Ranchi early on Friday with a lone woman passenger.The remaining 930 passengers on board the Rajdhani Express were ferried from Daltonganj Station to Ranchi by bus but railway officials could not convince the woman, Ananya, to take an alternative mode of transport arranged by the district administration.She was not ready to travel by bus as she had paid money for the train journey. Finally, rail authorities had to bow down before the tenacity of this law student and the train was diverted via Gomoh and Bokaro, covering a distance of 535 kilometres, which is 225 kilometres more than its normal route.
Speaking about her ordeal, the young lady said, “I was pressurized to travel by bus or taxi, but I was not ready for it as I had already paid for the train journey. Finally, when I informed Indian Railways through Twitter, they sent me to Ranchi by train,” Ananya was quoted as saying.The daughter of a retired official of the Heavy Engineering Corporation (HEC), she is currently pursuing an LLB degree at Banaras Hindu University (BHU).Railway authorities said buses were arranged by the district administration due to the uncertainty over the ongoing agitation of Tana Bhagats at Tori junction.“Since, it is the responsibility of Indian Railways that every passenger on board reaches his or her destination on time, arrangement of buses was done to ferry them to Ranchi.
However, due to some reasons, the girl was reluctant to board a bus or taxi arranged by the district administration,” said Senior Divisional Commercial Manager Avnish.Finally, the train departed from Daltonganj in the evening on the diverted route and reached Ranchi at 1:45 am on Friday morning. For the unversed, the New Delhi-Ranchi Rajdhani special (02454) express train was stranded at Jharkhand’s Daltonganj railway station since early Thursday morning as the agitating Tana Bhagats, a tribal community following Gandhian principles protested by sitting on railway tracks. Hundreds of Tana Bhagats a tribal community that believes in the Gandhian principles of non-violence from Latehar, Palamu, Chatra and other districts had announced to meet at Chandwa in Latehar district on Wednesday but the local administration did not let them hold the meeting, post which they sat on the railway tracks, late on Wednesday evening, in support of their demands for ensuring their rights on ancestral land.