Stone pelting on trains not an isolated incident

The stone pelting on the train bringing Congress MP Rahul Gandhi to the national capital from Ludhiana was not an isolated act as such incidents have been happening regularly across the country, officials in the Railways said.

Officials in the Railways revealed that such incidents have been taking place with alarming regularity across zones, with the Delhi division alone spending over Rs 3.50 lakh every month in replacing broken window panes in prestigious trains like Shatabdis and Rajdhanis.

Delhi division on an average replaces 122 window panes in Shatabdi trains (each pane costing Rs 2,096) and 50 window panes in Rajdhani trains, each glass sheet costing Rs 1,900. And the exercise is repeated month after month.

"The irony, however, is that most of the incidents involving stone pelting go unreported," a senior railway official said, adding that only six such incidents were reported last year. The Punjab-Haryana section only reported two incidents of stone pelting in the last two year, he claimed.

Observing that the Railways have become a soft target and come under attack for every reason, he, however, felt the recent incident will definitely prod the administration to deal tough with the issue.