Thanks to their poor scores on all parameters, both the railway stations of the city failed to make it to top 25 cleanest stations of the country. Out of three parameters, the Charbagh station scored poorly on process evaluation and citizens feedback. On the other hand, citizens’ perception was slightly better about the Lucknow Junction. In all, 407 stations were ranked on three parameters. TOI did a reality check to find out how did the two stations fare on these scales.On Tuesday, it was found that the entrances were in poor condition. The silt and garbage was piled all around the station premises after the rain and the covers of manholes were found in damaged condition with mosquitoes breeding upon them. Similar situation was observed in the parking lots of Charbagh railway station. The three parking lots were covered with silt, garbage and partial waterlogging. This was also posing threat of epidemic outbreak.Due to lack of waiting halls, passengers were all over the platforms. Male passengers were seen peeing in open area on the corners of platforms due to lack of toilets. Drinking water booths were filthy due to the spitting of paan masala all around. Similarly, the foot overbridge was seen broken at many places. Besides, against the norms of dustbins of five different colours, dustbin of just one colour was found on each platform.A passenger told TOI: “My train was 6 hours late. I found no place to wait as two waiting halls were running out of capacity. The one toilet on platform was not usable as it was stinking badly. I felt like a prisoner till my train arrived.”When asked about the poor show of Charbagh, DRM NR, Satish Kumar said: “I have planned to deploy personnel of railway protection force (RPF) on every platform to stop passengers from littering and peeing on platforms. Also, construction work is underway for remodelling of the station and once it’s done, most problems would be solved.”“We have plans to strengthen the teams in the Lucknow Junction’s premises to achieve cleanliness and hygiene goals,” said DRM NER Vijaylaxmi Kaushik.AllahabadSecuring the top position in UP among A1 category stations, Allahabad junction climbed to 33rd rank from 45th last year."We installed 110 dustbins, urged passengers to keep the station clean through public address system, imposed fine for littering and ensured cleanliness inspection throughout the year," said Allahabad division CPRO, G K Bansal.VaranasiNorthern Railway’s Varanasi station and Pt Deen Dayal Upadhyay Junction of East Central Railway in Chandauli fared poorly in cleanliness ranking. Varanasi scored poorly on process evaluation, scoring just 199 out of possible 333. Officials of both stations took a pledge to improve rankings next year.“A number of projects are on after which Varanasi will be a world class station,” said ADRM R P Chaturvedi.NE Railway’s Gorakhpur junction secured 44th rank in Swachh Rail, Swachh Bharat 2018, a cleanliness assessment of A1 and A category stations in India while North Eastern Railway slipped five places from rank 7 to rank 12.On being questioned on reasons, CPRO Sanjay Yadav said, “We have slipped in ranks. We will look into the grey areas and take corrective action.”KanpurOne of the busiest stations in country, Kanpur Central in North Central Railway zone secured rank 61 among A1 category stations. Passengers complained that vendors selling fruits and other eatables near the entrance do not maintain cleanliness and as a result stray animals collect there. “A number of projects are on after which Varanasi will be a world class station,” said ADRM R P Chaturvedi.

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