KL NEWS NETWORK
SRINAGAR
As the news about the Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti undertaking the train journey up to Baramulla herself spread on Thursday hundreds of farmers from Watwaan Pattan assembled on the railway track to draw her attention towards the pathetic condition of a railway tunnel in the area.
The farmers amid anti-railway department slogans blocked the railway track while anxious Railway officials sought help from police and civil administration to disperse the agitated protesters.
Sub-Divisional Magistrate Pattan Hameeda Akhtar along with Tehsildar Syed Faheem and a police team rushed to spot to diffuse the situation. The agitated farmers complained that the railway tunnel in Pattan is not only stinking but also in dilapidated condition. They accused railway department of using dilly dally tactics to avoid its repairing.
“We have no option but to stop the moving train of Chief Minister to draw her attention of negligent Railway authorities to the pressing matter. The tunnel stinks making pedestrians unable to walk through it,” protesters told the visiting team.
The protesters agreed to disperse peacefully after SDM assured them she will personally look into the matter and the work on the tunnel will be started within a week. “It was an embarrassing situation for us. Any how we motivated the protesters. Hopefully, the repairing work on the tunnel will be started within a week,” an official told CNS.
Pertinently, Chief Minister, Mehbooba Mufti, flagged off two new passenger trains for Kashmir on Thursday at Islamabad railway station and undertook the train journey up to Baramulla herself in the new service.
