Title - Braveheart railman awaits recognition

KOLKATA: Alok Kumar Roy still feels the pain at the base of his spine. His daughter hasn't yet overcome the trauma she suffered four years ago and every time he leaves home to join duty at Howrah, his child asks: "GRP'r lok e ra aar tomake maarbe na to (Make sure that you are not beaten up again by the GRP men)."The Government Railway Police (GRP) wasn't involved in what happened to Roy on May 2, 2009. The miscreants who threw him out of the Howrah-Hatia Express and thrashed him merely claimed that they were GRP personnel but for the child, who saw her father suffer for four long months, this made little difference. The worst part is that Roy's effort has remained unrecognized by the railways. Roy's wife has sent several letters, even to railway ministers, but he has not been considered for an award.Roy was the train superintendent on the Howrah-Hatia Express and knew that a marriage party of 47 from Burrabazar in Kolkata was travelling in the B1 and B2 coaches. He later came to know that it was an affluent family of goldsmiths from Burrabazar travelling on the train.When the train reached Tatanagar at 2.15am that dayon May 2, 2009, six persons approached the two compartments. Roy could make out that they were not passengers from Tatanagar. One of them wore a khaki shirt and trousers and the rest wore normal clothes. All of them had gamochhas tied around their heads and also on their shoulders.

When Roy the train superintendent wanted to know where they were headed, they replied that they were GRP constables. Roy asked them to move to the general class coaches but they tried to push through the door of the AC-III tier ones. Roy wouldn't let them through though. Suddenly, the miscreants pushed him out of the doorway. Fortunately, the train hadn't started moving as yet. He fell on his back on the platform and the six started beating him up. Roy's screams alerted ticket checking staff and coach attendants, who got off the train and intervened. Finding themselves outnumbered, the miscreants fled via the foot over bridge. Roy and the others gave chase but couldn't catch up.

"My husband's white shirt was covered in his own blood. He was bleeding profusely from injuries to his face. He had also hurt his spine and couldn't move normally.

Nobody attended to him till he reached Ranchi, nearly seven hours later.

He received four stitches to his lips there. He took charge of the return train back to Howrah.

He was later admitted to the South Eastern Railway's central hospital at Garden Reach for 17 days and was declared unfit by doctors for the next four months. He protected the property of so many passengersand may have also saved them from possible injury. We had expected the railways to recognize his effort. I even wrote to senior officers and railway ministers but to no avail," said Roy's wife Monideepa.

Senior South Eastern Railway (SER) officials said that Roy had performed a commendable feat and deserved an award. Though his name was recommended, it failed to make the list of those who receive awards on the occasion of Railway Week every year. This hasn't changed Roy's attitude towards life though. A TS on the Howrah-Mumbai Duronto Express, he took charge of 19-year-old Shamima Yasmin on Thursday after coming to know that she had lost her way while on her way to college in Balurghat from Kushmundi in South Dinajpur. He escorted her back to Howrah and handed the girl over to her parents.