Throwing garbage,
urinating, bathing, defecating, washing utensils and clothes, feeding animals
or birds on Railway premises - stations and buildings, platforms, railway
tracks and trains - will be punished according to a circular issued by the
Railway Board to the zonal heads in December 2012. Offenders will be prosecuted
with a fine of up to Rs.500/.
It’s paradoxical as it comes from the
mandarins of the world’s biggest public loo. What right the Indian Railway that
releases human excreta on to the track all through the country, has, to issue
this diktat to the public. This order does n’t spare even the birds and animals
which play a vital role in scavenging the tracks and stations. You see herds of
stray dogs and cats, who share the Railway’s premises with their suited staff.
The smell of Indian Railway is the stench
of human excreta and urine. It’s compartments are unwashed and uncleaned. It’s walls and floors are rusty and rickety.
We saw recently in Kerala, the parts of bogies ripped open and fell apart from
running rails.
In 1980s, while frequently traveling to
Mumbai (then Bombay), in train, the sight that woke me up in the mornings as
the train was nearing Bombay, was that of men and women squatting on both sides
of the track, easing themselves, keeping beside a dabba of water. Station
Masters who throw cigarette butts on to the platforms or spit through the
windows, after chewing betels are not uncommon. The staff on night duty on
trains used to throw the liquor bottles on to the track after their regular
quota.
Don’t spit, shit or urinate, unless you have
a Rs.100 in your purse, but those who belong to the Indian Railway are
exempted.
