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17th April 2024 Issue no. 701
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No security in half the trains to and from Mumbai
With rising incidences of crimes on long-distance trains, you would expect security to be beefed up. Sadly, most trains, both on Central Railway (CR) and Western Railway (WR), are travelling without security staff from the Railway Protection Force (RPF). According to the official reply to an RTI application filed in August by Anis Khan, a railway activist, more than half of the trains running on Central and Western Railway are unattended by security staff.
"Looking at the increasing crime rate in trains, the railway authorities should provide security to the passengers. Security staff should be deployed in trains, especially for the female passengers," said Khan. The news media has recently carried a string of reports on violent attacks on female train passengers in the city."
The RPF is in charge of protecting railway property, passengers and passenger areas. It is their duty to escort passengers on long-distance trains.
Interestingly, the RPF has nearly 10,000 posts lying vacant all over India. Out of the sanctioned strength for CR and WR, around 25-30 per cent are lying vacant. A senior inspector from the CR division of RPF clarified, "We have recently recruited home guards, but we cannot deploy them alone at the important junctions.
There, we absolutely have to deploy RPF staff with them. Even for baggage scanner machines, we have to have RPF staff with the home guards."
Sunil Singh, PRO, Western Railway, said, "We always ensure that we give RPF or GRP security force to trains departing from Mumbai in the night. For trains that travel during the day, we provide RPF security on a priority basis, depending on availability of staff. We are in the process of recruiting more staff."
Source: NDTV
18th September 2013