M A I N   N E W S

Safety lapses plague Railways
HOUSE PANEL REPORT: RPF doesn’t have weapons
* Not enough bulletproof jackets
* Most equipment outdated
Aditi Tandon
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 29
The security of railway passengers continues to be compromised despite 15 serious rail accidents reported across India in the past one year.

In the 196 stations identified as ‘sensitive’, the integrated security system, approved by the government at a cost of Rs 344.31 crore, is not yet in place.

Moreover, railway protection force (RPF) personnel remain ill-equipped to combat the Naxal threat. They don’t have enough bulletproof jackets (in the 800 railway stations under Western Railways, the security personnel have just 300 bulletproof jackets), helmets, poly-carbonated lathis or even searchlights, All this equipment is still under procurement.

Submitted in the backdrop of Gyaneshwari Express derailment in West Bengal, which claimed 65 lives, the railway passenger safety report of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Railways points out several cases of government laxity to recent trends of railway sabotage.

The committee, which surveyed railway stations on ground, says that RPF personnel have not been provided with enough AK 47s to combat terror threats. The indent for procuring 3,000 AK 47s has been pending with the Ministry of Home since 2007. The MHA in its reply to the committee said it had placed orders to procure 6,000 AK 47s, which would soon be handed over to RPF personnel.

The Railway Ministry’s data shows that between 2006 and 2009, India witnessed 76 cases of railway tracks being blown up by anti-social elements. In 2009, there were 26 such accidents. The figure in 2006 was 16.

Equally worrisome is the fact that incidents of loot on trains following drugging of passengers have increased. There were 957 such cases in 2009. Cases of drugging and loot were 699 in 2006, 877 in 2007 and 812 in 2008.

The panel in its report has castigated the Railways for making routine and uninformed announcements regarding new trains in each rail budget speech. “Routine announcements to introduce more trains on the already saturated tracks have compromised safety standards. Before new trains are announced, a scientific study must be commissioned to assess the capacity of the system to take excess load,” the panel headed by DMK member TR Baalu says.

It further notes that most stations have only an old baggage scanner in the name of security check. “Most equipment like hand-held metal detectors, door-metal detectors and X-ray baggage scanners are either not working or are unprofessionally manned by people at work,” the report adds. It also slams the Railways for failure to install anti-collision devices despite several cases of accidents due to collision in the past.

The panel has urgently asked the Railways to fill up 7,135 vacant posts of personnel, and rued that of the 21,000 new posts the Railway Board recommended, the government has sanctioned only 5,000. “There is a need to create 15,000 new posts,” the committee said.