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.
Some of the personnel shot videos of the train on their phones and sent them to their higher-ups and refused to travel in it, he added.
In a post on X, Congress spokesperson Shama Mohamed said: “This is what happens when the government’s entire focus is on PR for a few flashy trains, while the masses are forced to travel like animals. Shame on @narendramodi and @AshwiniVaishnaw for providing a filthy train — full of dirt, cockroaches and broken seats — for our BSF soldiers heading for Amarnath Yatra duty.”
Three senior section engineers and a coaching depot officer of the Alipurduar rail division have been suspended by Vaishnaw, the press note from the railway ministry said.
“The railway minister has said that the dignity of the security forces is paramount, and such negligence will not be tolerated at any level. An enquiry has also been ordered so that such incidents shouldn’t take place in future,” it said. The ministry said a special train with all facilities has been arranged for the comfortable movement of the troops.
On June 10, the Northeast Frontier Railway, under which the Alipurduar division falls, had said: “The allegation that the BSF was provided such kind of coaches for travel is incorrect. Coaches are provided for travel after necessary maintenance, repairs
and cleaning. This video is of an unexamined coach which was being sent for repair and was not meant for travel of BSF forces.”
A total of 581 companies of the central armed police forces, comprising 42,000 on-ground personnel, will be deployed for the Yatra.