OKARA: Dozens of residents of Renala Khurd and nearby villages have been protesting against the Pakistan Railways (PR) for cancellation of Khyber Mail stop at Renala Railway Station by setting up a hunger strike camp, demanding restoration of the train stop there.

The Khyber Mail stop at Renala has been cancelled by PR authorities since Feb 3, following which the locals have been protesting the step.

One of the protesters at the camp, Muhammad Ashraf, a senior citizen, said that prior to the cancellation of the train stop, more than hundred tickets would be sold at the Renala station daily, bringing over Rs0.4 million to the PR.

Questioning the sagacity of the decision-makers, he said that by cancelling the train stop, the PR had been deprived of this reasonable income, while the area people lost the facility of travelling to various cities conveniently.

He added that besides the window sale, the PR also lost the income it would earn through online booking. He claimed that on Feb 3, at least 28 people had to board the train from Okara after cancellation of their online bookings.

He said as trains provided travel facility mostly to the poor, the government should not eye profit though ticket sale. He demanded the federal government and railway minister to revisit the “unjust” decision.

On the other hand, Renala Station Master Muhammad Yousaf expressed his ignorance about the reasons behind the stop cancellation.

He, however, said that divisional superintendent had visited the station at the end of January, 2022 and collected the ticket sale data and other figures. He added that the PR had also cancelled the Khyber Mail stop at Changha Manga.

The Khyber Mail stop was allowed at Renala some four years back.

Published in Dawn, February 9th, 2022