Hyderabad: The growing number of alcoholics near Nampally railway station is a matter of concern to passengers. The addicts hang around the entrance to the station, creating a nuisance by quarrelling among themselves and troubling passengers mostly during night hours.

Recently, a family that had attended the wedding of a cousin was travelling back to Mumbai when they were harassed by one of these men who stood in front of their cab and refused to move.

K. Sampath Kumar, a resident of Tarnaka, who went to drop his cousins said, “When we were entering the railway station a person who was fully drunk stopped in front of our cab and stood there without moving. Despite honking he didn’t move and I got down to chase him away. When I told him to move away he behaved as if he would beat me up.”

M Uday Kumar, a software engineer, had a tale of extortion. “Fifteen days ago I was entering the railway station when a drunk woman came in front of my car and behaved as if she was hurt, though my car didn’t even touch her. As soon as I got out, she started demanding money. I was getting late for my train and I wanted to get rid of her so I paid `20 to avoid her as my family was also with me.”

He said he didn’t file a police complaint because he was getting late for his train. “They know that passengers are in a hurry and won’t complain to the police. So they trap passengers,” Mr Kumar said.

A travel agent who works near Nampally station, Md. Abrar, says the number of alcoholics hanging about the station has increased and they are a nuisance. “They engage in fights and all of them are mostly inebriated. They are a threat to passengers entering the railway station, especially at night,” he says.

When Inspector R Sanjay Kumar of the Nampally police was asked about this issue, he said, “Whenever we receive any complaint from any passenger we act immediately upon that complaint. Moreover, these are shelterless people. They stay in the public gardens most of the time.”