locals provide water, snacks to commuters

Mumbai: A few families, which stay along the railway tracks, provided water and snacks to hassled commuters who had decided to get off their trains due to the rail rokos organised by protesters on Wednesday.

The protestors had stopped railway services at several points like Thane, Dombivli, Kanjurmarg, Ambernath, Dadar and Malad-Goregaon.

The trains were stopped for more than three hours. The residents of nearby slums in these areas distributed water and snacks to the commuters who were walking along the railway tracks.

Sanju Jeeva, a slum resident who was distributing water and snacks to commuters said, “We realised that we should help the commuters after we saw that a woman who was walking back from Kanjurmarg to Bhandup was feeling dizzy. We helped her and then started providing water to everyone.”

In Chembur, protestors blocked the BEST buses. Sarita Mewani (55), a resident of Ghatkopar, who had gone to meet her sister, was scared after she saw people were shouting and agitating.

She said, “I got scared after I saw a mob holding sticks and asking us to empty the buses immediately. But one of the bike riders who was watching all this came to help me, and he dropped me at my home.”