A railway ticket counter that was set up in 2014 for the benefit of five lakh people, who live in the eight wards and an equal number of gram panchayats on the Nadia town’s eastern side, has been shut down for the last six months without assigning any reason.

The railways authorities had set up the counter on the eastern side of the Ranaghat railway station following a long-standing demand of the people.

“At least five lakh people were dependent on the ticket counter over the past six years. This includes residents of eight wards of Ranaghat town and residents of at least eight gram panchayats in Ranaghat-I block. The population is spread over four police stations,” said Tanmay Acharjee, who is a research scholar on information technology in business administration at Kalyani University.

The railway’s move has run into protest from a significant section of daily commuters — school and college students. Around 30 students from various schools and colleges are spearheading a silent protest for over a fortnight to protest against the closure of the railway ticket counter.

Holding posters, the students take turns every day to protest against the closure of the counter. They begin their protest at 8am and continue till 5pm to draw the attention of the Eastern Railway authorities and make them understand the need to restart the ticket counter.

The students have appealed to the ER authorities for resuming service of the ticket counter, and also tweeted railway minister Piyush Goyal to draw his attention to the plight.

However, there has been no response from Goyal or ER railway authorities. Rather, they were allegedly threatened by a section of local railway officials, prompting them to believe that vested interest were behind the closure.

Leading the protest since last month is Acharjee, who has been joined by his friends and a few students.

“It is suspicious whether the closure has been done in a planned manner. Soon after its closure railway officials had told us that poor network links had forced the closure. However, railway approved private counters continue to run without a hitch. So, has it been closed to facilitate private players?”

“On a several occasions we have urged railway officials in Ranaghat station apart from making written appeals to their higher authorities. But, the local officials threatened to implicate us in false cases, he added.

Railway officials on anonymity said that railway counters on the eastern side had a daily ticket sale of about Rs 70,000 apart from monthly tickets.

However, when asked about students’ protest, a spokesperson for ER in Calcutta said: “Necessary instruction has been issued by the DRM Sealdah office. We are hopeful that the counter will soon be functional once again”.