UP minister crosses closed level crossing

The commuters who stood on either side of the level crossing in Uttar Pradesh's Bareilly town were taken aback when they saw a senior state minister and scores of his supporters simply walking through the crossing bothering very little for the rules.

Minister for urban development Suresh Khanna was apparently in a tearing hurry as he was late for a function and did not consider it proper to wait for the train to pass the level crossing at Khadaua in the town on Friday.

The matter came to light when pictures of the minister bending to get under the gates at the crossing, went viral on the social networking sites on Saturday.

The pictures also showed scores of his supporters following the minister in same way. Those who openly flouted the rules, included the town's Mayor, commissioner and many other senior officials.

According to sources, Khanna's supporters, upon finding the level crossing closed, first tried to persuade the gate man to open the gates but the latter refused. He, however, rushed to open the gates when he saw the minister bending in order to cross the crossing, but by then he already had crossed.

An alert passer by, however, tweeted a complaint to the railway minister and a probe was ordered into the matter. "What message will be conveyed to the common man if the lawmakers themselves break the law?" the tweet said.