BENGALURU: Janet John, 18, was stopped from entering Indiranagar Metro Station last week. Reason: the hotel management student was carrying cutlery with her.A student of International Institute of Hotel Management in Indiranagar, Janet was carrying her essential tool kit — a kitchen set — and security personnel objected to it.“I was stopped at the station on Wednesday. The guards asked me to either drop the kit or take a bus. They didn’t allow me to enter despite me telling them that I’m a hotel management student. I had to leave the kit behind before boarding the train. I have to carry cutlery as part of my course,” said Janet, who commutes between Jalahalli and Indiranagar.BMRCL prohibits sharp objects like knives, swords, firearms and flammable items on trains. And it’s not just hotel management students who encounter such issues. Students from fashion designing institutes and art colleges carrying sharp instruments as part of academic activities, labourers with tool kits and youngsters armed with cricket kits also face such hurdles.However, BMRCL allows items like cameras and liquor bottles after passengers’ contact details are entered in the register at Metro stations. “We are thinking of exempting some of these items. Now, security personnel are allowing passengers to carry these objects on a case-to-case basis. But some of them do stop some passengers as a precautionary step. We are also getting complaints from commuters regarding youngsters carrying cricket kits in crowded trains,” said a senior BMRCL official.“It’s unfair to treat everyone as miscreants. It doesn’t make sense to discard our study material every time we board the Metro,” Janet said.In the national capital, for instance, Delhi Metro Rail Corporation allows women to carry small knives (blade up to 4 inch), generally used to cut fruits. Even labourers can carry tools after filling details in the register.

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