Urban Dumping Yard

The whole of Muzaffarpur city seems to be one big dumping yard. A huge solid waste disposal ground. I was there for few days in the town. Even a travel of less than two kilometers seemed to be a tiresome journey, with poor road conditions, huge potholes and unruly road behavior. When I traveled to villages and outside the city, the roads were much better, greener and easy to drive. What is the problem with this town that it is a deathbed for every citizen with poorest civic amenities on ground.

I must speak about the two hotels I stayed on. Hotel New Milan is on the main road, very close to Bibiganj in Muzaffarpur. The hotel is well connected, food is satisfactory, rooms are more-or-less tidy. But the quality of service and security features left much to be desired. Women traveling alone should not stay in this hotel at all. The other was Meenakshi International, which is situated just opposite of the Muzaffarpur train station. The rooms are large and decent, food is good, service was very good. They need to improve on cleanliness in rooms a little more. The positioning of TV in the room was not convenient in all the rooms. The hotel also has a large restaurant, meeting hall etc. But, I had one big problem: in spite of the word “international” it carries with its name, I could not pay them by card, and so had to search for an ATM. The road just outside the hotel gets flooded even with little rain, and it is totally filthy as there is no proper drainage and waste disposal mechanism in place in the municipality. 

Unsafe Travel on the Wheels

17 July : I was traveling from Muzaffarpur in Bihar to Bardhamman in West Bengal, returning after the training to doctors in three districts on flood preparedness and response management. The train arrived at 7.20 pm, a good one hour 45 minutes late than its scheduled time. I was in two tier AC coach which is supposed to be one of the best coaches, with additional cost involved in it. But, to my surprise there were people who were going to nearby towns, who were even supposed to get down at night 1.00 pm, with ordinary tickets, but sitting in the two tier AC. They had bribed their way in by paying some money to the ticket examiner. When I returned to Muzaffarpur again on 20 July, I say even crowds with just current ticket going for a religious festival in the sacred month of Shravan in Hindu calendar, were forcing their way into air-conditioned coaches and the policemen were just watching helplessly. What is happening to the Indian railways? It is becoming difficult to travel safe in the trains.

After three days, I was returning from Patna. (I cancelled the ticket from Muzaffarpur due to the fear of being overpowered by the same “religious” crowds.) This time the train was a super-fast, and so did not have much stops and was not much crowded as well. At 1.30 am, policemen came and asked me if the bags which contained mostly the training materials were mine. I said, “Yes”. They said, “Jaagkar raheyega!” which meant, “Remain awake”. So, who is supposed to take responsibility if there are thieves and the several “religious” persons walking around in the train without any proper ticket? Me? I am supposed to keep awake? Ridiculous. If you have to take a train for your travel, do it only in emergencies, take care….Don’t sleep. And, better still, if you can avoid, avoid the Indian Railways.