Mail News Service
Jamshedpur, Oct 24: The drinking habit of a Railway gate man deputed at Jojobera level crossing caused public nuisance and inconvenience to scores of commuters late Wednesday evening.
Sources said the accused gate man fled the place of his duty after being rebuked by some commuters for not opening the gate in time. Reportedly in a drunken state, he closed the barrier at the Railway level crossing and went away without informing anyone or calling for replacement. As a result, the traffic on both sides of the crossing came to a halt for over an hour. A long tailback of vehicles could be seen waiting for the barrier to go up, sources said.
The accused had also left his two-wheeler parked near the crossing for hours. Not getting signal from the gateman, several trains stopped at some distance from the crossing. The train horn kept blowing but no response was given by anyone. Later, senior Railway officials at Tatanagar station were informed about the situation. Parsudih police was also called to the spot. The crossing barrier was lifted after some time. Irked over the incident, local residents and commuters demanded action against the drunken Railway driver. They said one Ramjee Prasad, a resident of Barigora, had died due to the recklessness of the gateman at Jojobera crossing in 2009.
