Amartya Sen

Burdwan, Feb. 21: Nobel laureate Amartya Sen was among thousands stranded on the tracks here this morning as a group of people turned a station some distance away into a battlefield.

Train services in the Khana-Rampurhat section of Eastern Railway were disrupted for over eight hours from 6.30 am as hundreds squatted on the lines at Bhedia station, 220 km from Calcutta, and fought police while pressing for a slew of demands.

Sen, on his way to Santiniketan, however, did not have to sit stuck for that long. The district administration ensured that he took a car home from Burdwan station.

But not everyone had the scope for a detour when the residents of Bhedia virtually took them hostage.

The demands were many ? from the construction of a footbridge at the station to erecting a platform shed and ensuring stops for three long-distance trains at Bhedia.

Several trains, including the Shantiniketan Express ? in which Sen was travelling ? and the Varanasi-Sealdah Express, were forced to halt.

Personnel from the local police, the Government Railway Police (GRP) and the Railway Protection Force (RPF) struggled to rein in the agitators. Tear-gas shells had to be lobbed and 12 rounds fired in the air to bring the situation under control. At least 20 policemen were injured as the demonstrators hurled brickbats. A jeep was ransacked.

District magistrate Subrata Gupta said the demonstrators demanded that senior railway officials from Howrah speak to them. He added: ?The Ausgram block development officer and the OC of the local police station were among those injured.?