[Given points: Place – Hooghly, Bengal; five-hour strike; no train during the lockdown]

Protest in Hooghly demanding early resumption of local train services
—by a staff reporter

Hooghly, November 2: A massive protest by groups of daily passengers and vendors turned violent demanding the resumption of local train services in Bengal’s Hooghly district on Monday. There were several groups of the same motive holding the black and red flags found at several places between the stations Baidyabati and Bhadreshwar.

The protesters disrupted special train services for almost 5 hours, which were being run for railway staff. Local train services for general passengers have been closed ever since the nationwide lockdown was imposed to curb the rise of coronavirus cases.

“All modes of transport are running, everything has opened, people are going to offices and only we are not being able to go to work for so many months because there are no trains running. The government must resume train services completely,” said a protester, who supplies sarees to big shops in Kolkata.

Later, the protest was withdrawn following the intervention of railway officials. Directives over the resumption of services would come with a set of standard operating procedures. Officials agreed that the implementation of the SOPs will be a challenge for local trains in Bengal, said a railway staff on condition of anonymity.

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