Guwahati/New Delhi, 11 June (HS): Four officers of Alipurduar Coaching Depot have been suspended in the five-day-old case of providing dilapidated train for the travel of BSF jawans. Another train was also provided to the jawans to reach their destination.

1200 BSF jawans were to go to Amarnath from Tripura on June 6. The train provided to the jawans by Northeast Frontier Railway had broken windows and doors. The video of the train has also surfaced now. In this, the toilet is seen broken, there is no light. The cushions on the seats are also missing. Cockroaches are visible on the floor. The jawans had refused to board this train.

Railway Minister Vaishnav told reporters at the National Media Center in New Delhi on Wednesday that the incident related to the deployment of an old train for BSF jawans going on Kashmir duty from Tripura has been taken seriously. For this lapse, four officers of Alipurduar division have been suspended with immediate effect from today. These officers are from Alipurduar division, which includes the coaching depot officer of Alipur coaching depot and three senior section engineers of Alipur division.

The Railway Minister made it clear that the dignity and convenience of the security forces is paramount and this type of negligence will not be tolerated at any level. The Railway Ministry has also ordered an inquiry into this entire matter. It is being ensured that such incidents do not recur in future.

Northeast Frontier Railway CPRO Kapinjal Kishore Sharma told Hindustan Samachar that another train has been provided for the travel of BSF jawans. However, the timing of the train was not disclosed due to security reasons.

The 1200 BSF jawans include Tripura Frontier, Guwahati Frontier and M&C Frontier companies. 1200 jawans of all these companies had to leave for Amarnath Yatra duty. This special train was to leave from Udaipur railway station (Tripura) for Jammu Tawi railway station on June 6. BSF jawans were to board the 'special train' from Udaipur (Tripura), Ambasa (Tripura), Badarpur (Assam), Goalpara (Assam) and Cooch Behar (West Bengal) railway stations. Meanwhile, the train scheduled to leave on June 6 was cancelled after BSF lodged an objection.

It is worth mentioning that the Amarnath Yatra is being held for 38 days for the first time. This time it will run from July 3 to August 9. This year the duration of the yatra has been reduced to 38 days as compared to 52 days last year.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Sriprakash