The number of coronavirus cases have been rising in Mumbai everyday. However, a few private offices and shops have been allowed to re-open after the lockdown rules were eased across the city in June. The employees of these private agencies are facing a lot of problems due to the lack of daily commuting services in the city. The train and bus services in Mumbai are currently only limited to the essential workers like the medical staff, government employees, municipal workers, policemen and others professions which are notified by the state government.
In order to bring light to the issue of the problems faced by non-essential workers, the private passengers staged protests at the local MSRTC bus stand area and the Nalasopara railway station on Wednesday morning. It was reported that a large number of passengers crowded the Nalasopara ST bus stand area and insisted that they should be allowed to travel in buses being used for the essential service workers.Keeping the social distance norms in mind, the local ST administration has said that providing buses for these private passengers immediately was not possible. However, the angry crowd did not back down and continued to protest. Despite intervention by the police, the protesting passengers started to riot at the scene. For safety reasons, the local ST administration immediately shut the bus stand.
About 100 to 150 ST buses are issued daily from the Nalasopara ST stand for passengers. However, not a single bus was operating at the bus stand today. The passengers were informed that the bus stand was closed indefinitely and as a result, the travellers lost their restraint and began to protest. The incident was reported after agitated commuters gathered on the railway tracks and blocked the Mumbai local line. The passengers also demanded permission from the Railway authorities to travel by train so that they could reach their respective workplaces.
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