Apart from police personnel and the public being injured in several places of the country, the anti-CAA riots perpetrated by the far-leftist brigade and the members of the Opposition has left state-owned properties worth crores being damaged. Apart from both public and private vehicles and other public properties, railway properties were also damaged by the anti-CAA rioters in several parts of the country.
The Indian Railways has now decided to claim the damages caused to its property during these anti-CAA riots, from the persons involved.
Confirming that Railway property worth Rs 80 crore was damaged during protests across the country against the amended citizenship law, Railway Board Chairman Vinod Kumar Yadav said that recovery will be made from those found involved in arson and violence. He said on Monday, “There has been damage of railway property worth Rs 80 crore during anti-CAA protests. Damages will be recovered from those found involved in arson and violence.
Railway property worth Rs 80 crore damaged during anti-CAA protests, recovery to be made from those involved: Railway Board chairman
— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) December 30, 2019
According to another report, a top Railways Protection Force (RPF) official has said that the Indian Railways have lost property worth Rs 90 crore during the riots, and the Eastern Railways- mostly spread across West Bengal- alone accounted for 80 per cent of those losses.
“West Bengal has been the worst because the Eastern Railways largely falls in the state, the total loss there alone has been Rs 72.19 crore,” said RPF DG Arun Kumar. South Eastern Railways was second with property losses worth Rs 12.75 crore, followed by North Eastern Frontier Railways that lost Rs 2.98 crore in damages.
Confirming that the spates of violence leading to attacks on railway property rose to the maximum during Mamata Banerjee’s anti-CAA rallies, RPF DG Arun Kumar said Howrah, Sealdah and Malda divisions were the most affected in Bengal.
Railways have filed a total of 85 FIRs for the violent incidents that also led to injuries to a dozen employees.
“There are people who have been identified through the videos of the violence and we have registered FIRs against them,” Kumar said.
After a concerted campaign was run by the Trinamool Congress party to slam the Citizenship Law, West Bengal had turned into a war-zone with sporadic incidents of violence, arson and stone-pelting reported from various corners of the state.
We had reported how a senior police officer was reportedly injured on December 17, as a violent mob hurled a bomb towards the team of personnel he was leading to arrest those involved in vandalising the railway station at Sankrail Manikpur area in Howrah city.
Though numerous railway stations and ticket counters in the state have been ransacked, various trains pelted with stones at and set on fire in the name of protests against the CAA, causing immense loss of revenues and badly affecting rail services through the state, it’s Chief Minister, Mamata Banerjee has asserted that protecting the Indian Railways and its properties in the state are not the responsibility of her Government.
Moreover, CM Banerjee had played down the escalations and attacks on assets of the Indian Railways, rendering them to be “small incidents”.
