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Correspondent

23 August 2024 at 4:29:04 pm

Deadly Commute

Mumbai has always taken pride in its local trains, which have been celebrated as the city’s lifeline. It has long been a democratic institution that carries millionaires and labourers alike, and a symbol of the resilience that Mumbaikars so often boast about. The brutal murder of a 22-year-old passenger inside a moving local has exposed a darker reality. The city’s most cherished public service is no longer merely overcrowded and uncomfortable but is becoming steadily unsafe. The victim,...

Deadly Commute

Mumbai has always taken pride in its local trains, which have been celebrated as the city’s lifeline. It has long been a democratic institution that carries millionaires and labourers alike, and a symbol of the resilience that Mumbaikars so often boast about. The brutal murder of a 22-year-old passenger inside a moving local has exposed a darker reality. The city’s most cherished public service is no longer merely overcrowded and uncomfortable but is becoming steadily unsafe. The victim, travelling in a first-class compartment of a Churchgate-Nallasopara fast local, became embroiled in an argument over whether the train door should be kept open during heavy rain. The disagreement escalated into fatal violence after the accused pulled out a knife and stabbed him in the abdomen. As blood pooled on the floor of the compartment, passengers merely stood there watched in horror. A video of the aftermath showed the alleged killer walking away with the weapon in hand without anybody stopping him. For years, a rough but effective social order prevailed in the Mumbai local train. While commuters may have jostled for space and exchanged harsh words, there remained an unwritten code of conduct for keeping outright criminality at bay. Mumbai’s trains have long been dangerous in one sense. Every year, hundreds die while crossing tracks, hanging from footboards or falling from overcrowded coaches. But passengers rarely feared being murdered inside the compartment itself. S Even more troubling was the reaction of those present. The footage suggests that dozens of passengers chose self-preservation over intervention. While few citizens would willingly confront an armed attacker, the images nonetheless reveal a growing atomisation of urban life. Millions travel together every day, but increasingly as strangers who feel no responsibility towards one another. Mumbai’s famed collective spirit has now become a slogan repeated only after disasters rather than a reality visible in everyday life. The authorities, too, have questions to answer. How did an individual carrying a knife manage to board and travel through one of the busiest suburban rail networks in the world? Why does visible security remain so sparse despite years of promises about surveillance, modernisation and passenger safety? The Railways have invested heavily in technology, announcements and infrastructure upgrades. Yet commuters continue to encounter inadequate policing and an absence of deterrence. The larger concern is cultural. Across India’s cities, there is evidence of rising public aggression. Minor disagreements increasingly escalate into violence. Road-rage incidents, neighbourhood disputes and social-media-fuelled confrontations frequently end in bloodshed. Patience, compromise and restraint appear to be in retreat. Mumbai likes to imagine itself as different from the rest of India. The local train murder suggests otherwise. A city is judged not by its skyline but by the safety of its ordinary spaces. When passengers can no longer assume that they will return home alive from a routine train journey, something fundamental has gone wrong.

Farmers’ Protest: Fresh Talks With Centre Begin Over MSP Guarantee, Debt Waiver & Other Demands

  • PTI
  • Mar 19, 2025
  • 2 min read

Updated: Mar 20, 2025

A 28-member farmers' delegation meets central ministers in Chandigarh, hoping for a breakthrough on MSP, debt relief, and other key issues


Farmers’ Protest
A fresh round of talks between protesting farmers and a central delegation to discuss their various demands. | X @PTI_News

Chandigarh: A fresh round of talks between protesting farmers and a central delegation to discuss their various demands, including a legal guarantee for minimum support price (MSP) for crops, is underway here.

Union Agriculture minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Consumer Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi, and Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal reached the Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Public Administration in Sector 26 here around 11.50 am on Wednesday for the meeting.

Punjab Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema and Agriculture Minister Gurmeet Singh Khuddian are also part of the meeting.

Ahead of the talks, farmer leader Sarwan Singh Pandher said a 28-member delegation of the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (Non-Political) and Kisan Mazdoor Morcha will take part in the meeting.


The Samyukta Kisan Morcha (Non-Political) and the Kisan Mazdoor Morcha are spearheading the farmers' stir.

Pandher said the farmers expect the government to resolve their issues.

"We have come here for the meeting with a positive mind. Some decision should come out after the meeting. We expect that the deadlock over the MSP guarantee law will end and the talks will move forward," he told reporters.

The farmers' delegation comprising Jagjit Singh Dallewal and Sarwan Singh Pandher reached the meeting venue earlier.


Dallewal, who has been on an indefinite fast, came in an ambulance. He said they were expecting the Centre's response on the data presented by farmers in support of their claims.

The last meeting between the farmers and the central delegation was held here on February 22. The meeting was attended by Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Consumer Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi, and Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal.

In the last meeting, the central team sought data from the farmers to back their claims for a legal guarantee for MSP for a discussion with experts.

The farmers said a legal guarantee for MSP can be given with an estimated outlay of Rs 25,000-30,000 crore per annum.


On February 14, a meeting between a central team led by Union minister Joshi and farmers' representatives was held here.

Prior to this meeting, four rounds of meetings took place between central ministers and the protesting farmers in February 2024 but the talks remained inconclusive.

The protesting farmers have been camping at Shambhu and Khanauri border points between Punjab and Haryana since February 13 last year after security forces did not allow them to march to Delhi to press their demands.

Besides a legal guarantee for MSP, the farmers are demanding a debt waiver, pension for farmers and farm labourers, no hike in electricity tariffs, withdrawal of police cases against farmers, justice for the victims of the 2021 Lakhimpur Kheri violence in Uttar Pradesh, reinstatement of the Land Acquisition Act, 2013, and compensation to the families of farmers who died during a previous agitation in 2020-21.

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