Railway employees of Group C and D residing in Ajni Railway Colony are living in fear after portion of a ceiling roof collapsed in one of the quarters on Sunday. A teenager sustained minor injuries when chunks of plaster from the ceiling fell off in Quarter no. 417/C, a RB-II Type, around 10.30 am. The quarter is allotted to Ajay Kumar Mistri, Sr. Ticket Checker, who at the time of incident, was on duty. Luckily, the plaster pieces fell just adjacent to the boy where he was sleeping.

 

All hell broke loose and Mistri's wife rushed to the bedroom and was horrified at the sight. These Type-II quarters are located in front of the Church in Railway Colony. Due to lack of maintenance the outer appearance of these quarters would reveal as if they are forsaken, though a full fledged team of Engineering Branch headed by Inspector Works (IoW) is deputed exclusively for Ajni Railway Colony. Meanwhile as the news reached officials, IoW Priyanka Mukunde rushed to the affected quarter. The labourers cleared the fallen plaster piece and as per information the IoW said the administration is ready to allot another quarter in case they family want to shift.

 

However Mistry's wife said it being Diwali, shifting so much of material, is not feasible. As per colony residents had the incident occurred during the night, someone might have been badly injured. Mistry's 12-year-old sight is still to overcome trauma as it was near miss situation for him. Despite complaints, the IoW is unable to attend to repairs of rectify the situation as Railways has sparse budget as disposal. Mistry's quarter was on third floor and due to seepage the ceiling plaster fell down. Over the years negligence on part of administration can be seen in form tell tale signs of neglect of the properties. These Type-II quarters, they number around 35, have completed their life span, they are nearly 50-years-old and yet railway employees continue to reside immune to lurking dangers. Railways are constructing new multistoreyed quarters and some of them are ready and they have been allotted. But the process of construction of new quarters is quite slow and till then railway employees would keep praying to god for their and their families protection.