RailEnquiry

MANGALORE: Enraged over the delay in opening the railway gate at Padil on Monday night, public damaged railway property and squatted on the railway tracks till 11.30 pm.

They withdrew the protest after deputy speaker N Yogish Bhat promised that he would call a meeting of railway officials, district administration and MCC to solve the problem within a fortnight.

The meeting will be held after MP Nalin Kumar Kateel, who is currently in Delhi, returns to the city. "I understand the problem. We will solve the issue after discussing it threadbare at the meeting. We will do the needful at the earliest,'' he added.

After the public stopped a train by squatting on the tracks, police rushed to the spot to control the situation. Later the mob detained another train. They also attacked vernacular newspaper photographer Ramesh Pandit when he tried to take pictures.

The photographer said there were not enough policemen to tackle the situation. They were mute spectators of the slew of events. The public were shouting slogans against the railways sitting on the tracks. Villagers of Padil Alape have been demanding for a under bridge for the past 10 years and on Monday, they vented their pent up anger on the railways.