When a radio announcer got a railway station sanctioned

On National Broadcasting Day, I recall a time when a radio announcer could get a railway station sanctioned for his village. This happened around the year 1956 or 1957, when I was a school student in class six or seven. At that time, Haryana was still part of the Punjab state. I was studying at the Government High School in village Kaimla, district Karnal. One day, our teacher asked us to march on foot to the nearby village of Kohand, where a minister was scheduled to address a public gathering. We were excited about the trip — walking about three kilometers was no big deal.
The Minister of Railways, Shahnawaz, arrived sometime later with Pandit Hirday Ram, who was a popular compère of the rural program on All India Radio, Delhi, and belonged to Kohand village. In his welcome speech, Hirday Ram demanded a railway station for the village, and in response, the minister accepted the demand. We all clapped enthusiastically. It seemed as if Hirday Ram had already made a deal with the minister in Delhi beforehand.
A month or two later, we were once again marching to Kohand — this time to witness the first train halt there. It was a festive occasion. The villagers participated with band and music. The village headman (sarpanch) and his aides placed baskets full of sweets in every train compartment. One box of barfi was reserved for the station master, and another for the engine driver. We stuffed our pockets with sugar candies (pataasas).
That day, the train stopped for about ten minutes. The station master announced that henceforth, the train would halt only for one minute.
In fact, the station had been opened on a trial basis, depending on the traffic volume. There wasn’t much traffic. The local panchayat came up with a plan: first, no one would travel without a ticket; second, the panchayat would buy enough tickets daily to meet the minimum quota required.
Kohand railway station is still a small one. Evidently, now there is enough traffic to meet the required ticket sales. Barely one or two trains stop there. People take trains from here to Panipat and Karnal.
In our village, there was a community radio set, and people used to listen to the rural program with great enthusiasm. Sometimes, someone would be heard saying that the man speaking on the radio as "Saheb" was the same person who had gotten the railway station sanctioned for his village Kohand.
History of National Broadcasting Day:
The first radio broadcast in India was made from the Bombay station on 23 July 1927. At that time, the station was owned by a private company called the Indian Broadcasting Company. The government took over broadcasting operations on 1 April 1930, and renamed it Indian State Broadcasting Service (ISBS). Initially, it operated on an experimental basis. Later, in 1932, it came under permanent government control.
On 8 June 1936, the Indian State Broadcasting Service was renamed All India Radio. In 1956, it was renamed Akashvani. Today, Akashvani (All India Radio) is one of the largest public broadcasting organizations in the world.

(Ajeet Singh is a retired IIS officer and stays in Hisar)