The Hindu : National : Luggage in pantry car

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Aug 18, 2004

National

National

Luggage in pantry car

By Sandeep Joshi

NEW DELHI, AUG. 17. The Railway Minister, Lalu Prasad, is conducting "raids" at railway stations and at the Indian Railway headquarters — Rail Bhavan — to bring some "order" in the establishment but his own party workers are allegedly misusing the Minister's name and flouting norms when it comes to using the railway services.

This is exactly what happened at the New Delhi railway station this morning when some railway officials spotted six huge bundles being offloaded from the pantry car of the Magadh Express. As carrying luggage in the pantry car is against the law, they questioned two persons accompanying the luggage only to find that it was being carried with "Mr. Lalu Prasad's permission."

Railway sources said that the two persons, who kept the bundles in the train at Ara, had not even booked the luggage and were carrying it without any documentation. The bundles had hundreds of blankets meant for the flood victims of Gujarat collected from Bihar. Hearing this, the sources said, the inquiry was stopped and arrangements were made for the luggage to be kept in the one of the rooms of the Station Master's office.

However, when contacted, senior Northern Railway officials said they were not aware of any such incident. They, however, said the Railways did carry relief material free of cost but even that luggage needed to be booked and carried only in parcel vans. Under no circumstances could luggage be carried in a pantry van which was against the laid norms and also dangerous from the safety point of view.

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