By Sanjeeb Kumar Sahoo
Trust me, neither I nor National Political Mirror, the world’s only weekly political magazine and India’s sole #independent media house, believe any social media influencers’ reports about anything.
Recently, I saw a video about Vande Bharat Express in which a film actor said positive things about the train. I agreed with him because Vande Bharat Express has all amenities such as comfort and hygiene, and the train runs on time. But don’t forget that 95 percent of people cannot afford Vande Bharat Express, Rajdhani Express, Shatabdi Express, or Tejas Express, and there are approximately 160 Vande Bharat Express, 52 Rajdhani Express 52, 25, Shatabdi Express, and 4 Tejas Express for approximately 150 crores of respectable people in India.
Currently, there are 26 pairs of Garib RathExpress trains running from selected railway stations, which are well-known for their high-speed, limited-stop, and fully air-conditioned (mostly 3-tier) cheap travel options, and many Indians can afford this train, but there is a lack of connectivity with 1234 railway station junctions, and it does not run every day from the station where it is currently running.
So in the next paragraph, I will recount a true story based on my 30-hour journey from Puri to Haridwar by the #KalingaUtkalExpress, which is used by the majority of Hindu devotees to visit Puri,Haridwar and Mathura.
So, on June 12, after meeting with my mother in our village-Nuagaon, I arrived at Rourkela station at 7:40 a.m. to catch my Delhi train from village #Nuagaon, which is on the border of Odisha and Jharkhand, and Nuagaon Railway Station is the last station of Odisha, and Jharkhand begins after a few kilometres, with Orga being the first station.
So, when I arrived at Rourkela station, I came to know that my train, the Kalinga Utkal Express, was around 6 hours late, despite the fact that the original schedule was 8:34 and the departure time from the station was 8:42 am for Delhi.
So I waited six hours at the station, and about 2:35pm, my train arrived at Rourkela station, where I boarded. And because I had made a reservation with Premium Tatkal (PT) is an Indian Railways quota that enables you to book last-minute, confirmed tickets on popular trains using a dynamic pricing scheme. I had my seat, and my seat number was 7, and after a few minutes. I began talking with two passengers, and I discovered that passengers in seats 4, 6, and 7 were travelling to Mathura, and passengers in seats 1, 2, 4, and 8 were travelling to Delhi with me, and all but four were from my assembly constituency.
Among my seven fellow passengers on the train, three work in Delhi-NRC bungalows, and three were going to a paddy farm in Mathura for someone, and they will charge Rs 7,000 for one acre of paddy cultivation land, which they will cultivate for about 60 acres in one month. Another passenger was going to meet a relative.
As I previously stated, the Kalinga Utkal Express is for Hindu devotees, since many state residents travel to Puri to perform Puja for Lord Jagannath, and many visit Haridwar and Mathura by this train, which is the oldest in the nation.
The Kalinga Utkal Express is intriguing since it travels through seven states: Odisha, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, and ultimately Uttarakhand. This train has a special place in my heart because I first arrived in Delhi by train in 2010 to attend an interview and group discussion at the world’s top journalism school-Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC) (then I was admitted to IIMC) on the JNU New Campus in New Delhi, and I also read about class 3 or 4 in the “Bharat Darshan” chapter of an Odia book.
Additionally, based on my experience on June 12, it appears that railways only give careful consideration to specific trains, such as the Vande Bharat Express, Rajdhani Express, Shatabdi Express, and Tejas Express, which are used by a select group of people who can afford them. However, they do not give careful consideration to the routes taken by 95% of Indian citizens.
Another harsh reality is that ordinary express travellers who travel on sleeper class (SL) tickets like sharing their seats with everyone else. For example, if the train arrives at Mathura station around 8 or 9 a.m. and any passengers enter the sleeper class bogie without a reservation ticket to Morena station, and the same passenger requests a seat from a passenger whose seat is reserved and is heading, say, to Indore from Delhi, that sleeper class passenger will always share his or her seat with the passenger who has no reservation ticket for his or her next stop.
On the other side, passengers who have reserved seats in a train, such as Vande Bharat Express, Rajdhani Express, Shatabdi Express, or Tejas Express would never share with anyone, but they have more advantages than others, and they always believe that the train is theirs because they pay an additional Rs 1000 to Rs 2000 per seat reservation.
Even during night travel, a few passengers on normal express trains have been seen sharing their seats with a few waiting list passengers whose seats have not been confirmed but who travel due to an emergency.So, at the very least, other trains express deserve to be neat and clean, with water in their washrooms and toilets in the coaches or bogies where they travel with family members to visit relatives, and many go to work or office every day, and toilets to be cleaned every two hours as more passengers travel in other trains due to frequent stops at many railway stations.
And I am mentioning here this because I discovered that on June 12 and 13, no adequate cleaning was being done in the washroom of Kalinga Utkal Express (18477 and pnr number was -6664912761), despite the fact that cleaning staff was on the train and I discovered that they were resting in the pantry coach.
But on June 13 morning, rather than tweeting on X while using Indian Railways official id if with my PNR number to update the real situation of the toilet room, I called one of the staff and asked him where was your manager or supervisor, then he immediately called his supervisor and then he asked me, sir, pls tell me, then I asked him why the toilet room is so dirtywhen you have to clean it at least four times in eight hours on this train as most of the passengers are old ladies who are all devotees, and this train is also known for devotees who travel from all over the country to visit Puri,Haridwar or Mathura.
So, after cleaning and washing all bogies and toilets, as well as fixing the doors of the washrooms or toilets because the doors were not properly working, the cleaning staff’s supervisor told me that my staff will clean every two hours and if they don’t, you can complain to me. I told the supervisor that my motto was to see neat and clean washrooms in this train because this train is very old and known to devotees who travel each day to Puri, Haridwar, and Matura to see Tirthstha.
Meanwhile, millions of devotees visit Puri, Haridwar, and Matura every year in search of spiritual enlightenment and a strong connection to Hindu mythology.
And I would like to conclude by saying that other express train passengers are not looking for premium services, but they do deserve to be neat and clean in their bogie and to have access to water in the washroom or toilet rooms, just as Indian Railways does for passengers who pay an extra Rs 1000 to 2000 in trains such as the Vande Bharat Express, Rajdhani Express, Shatabdi Express, or Tejas Express.
