Title - Panic as rail coach goes ‘missing’

Chandigarh : Passengers at the local railway station were subject to utter confusion this morning, when a particular Jan Shatabdi coach, C3, did not arrive at the station. In the ensuing commotion, a doctor, who did not find his mother on board, pulled the chain and was subsequently roughed up by Railway Protection Force (RPF) personnel.When the train arrived at 7.30 am, over 20 local passengers on board were ‘missing’, leaving their families anxious. The doctor pulled the chain of the train after shuffling through different compartments in search of his mother and not finding her.Since the C3 coach was not there, he thought she was adjusted in some other compartment. He could not check all the coaches and the train started, forcing him to pull the chain.The roughing up incident was confirmed by the railway authorities, but the doctor is said not to have lodged any formal complaint. Relatives of over 20 passengers who had come to pick them up were disturbed when they saw the coach missing.A frantic search of other coaches followed. Daljit Singh, a shopkeeper, said: “I had come to pick up my grandfather. I kept standing near the entrance gate since he has travelled by this train several times and knew his way. When I saw that a majority of passengers had got off, I was shocked to learn that the C-3 coach was missing.”Passengers made frantic enquiries at the platform but to no avail. A railways official said: “We had no information about the coach not arriving and so, we did not have any reply.”