Rly hauled up for providing filthy train to BSF: 4 officials axed

Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Wednesday suspended four officials and ordered an inquiry after the BSF accused the railways of providing a filthy, rickety and unhygienic “special” train from Tripura to transport around 1,200 troops to be deployed in Jammu and Kashmir for the Amarnath Yatra.

Sources at the BSF headquarters in Delhi said jawans of the paramilitary force were shocked to see the poor condition of the coaches, which were “full of cockroaches, broken seats and windows and dirty toilets with no water and strewn with human excreta”. Videos of the rundown and filthy train, shot by some BSF jawans, went viral on social media, triggering outrage over the treatment of security forces, as many online users took potshots at the Narendra Modi dispensation that swears by national security and soldiers.

“It was so shameful that the railways provided a special train with horrible conditions inside. Apparently, the train was not used for months. The jawans would have fallen sick had they travelled in it. Our top brass took up the matter with senior railway officials and asked them to provide a better train, or the troops would not travel,” said a BSF official.

The troops were part of the central force reinforcements being sent to Jammu and Kashmir to boost security for the annual Amarnath Yatra scheduled from July 3 in the aftermath of the Pahalgam terror attack.

Sources said around 1,200 BSF troops, drawn from 13 companies, were scheduled to board a special train on June 6 for Jammu Tawi from Udaipur in Tripura. The train was supposed to make a few stops in between for more troops to board from Assam and Bengal.

“The train was, however, made available three days later (June 9) even though the jawans were supposed to be deployed by June 12 as per the directions of the Union home ministry. When some troops entered the train, they were shocked to see the horrific condition inside. It was filthy, full of cockroaches, with broken seats and windows and dirty toilets strewn with human excreta. There was no water inside the washroom,” said the BSF official.