Security measures missing at Karnal railway station

Parveen Arora

Tribune News Service

Karnal, August 1

The Karnal railway station, which is one of the oldest stations of the country built by Britishers in 1892, is without proper security measures, risking the lives of passengers.

The security lapses can be gauged from the fact that CCTV cameras, which were installed years back and got non-functional, have not been replaced so far. The Union Government had sanctioned a project of installing CCTV cameras at railways stations across the country under the Nirbhaya Fund, but the station is yet to get the cameras to monitor the activities of miscreants.

The door metal detector is also non-functional, giving an easy passage to miscreants. The same security lapses also came to the fore during the visit of passengers’ amenities committee member Vir Kumar Yadav two days back. “I observed that CCTV cameras are missing and directed the authorities to install them at the earliest. I have also asked the authorities to ensure proper functioning of the hand metal and door metal detectors at the station,” Yadav had said during his visit to the station. The situation remains even after several threats being received to blow up the station. In September 2018, the Ambala Cantonment railway station had received a letter of blowing up several stations across the state, including that of Karnal. On October 3, 2011, a similar letter was received at the Karnal station.

Tara Chand, SHO, Government Railway Police, said CCTV cameras would be installed in the coming days and a control room would be made at the RPF office. A room had also been constructed for it. He claimed that metal detectors were functional.

On the other hand, passengers refuted his claims and said the detectors were non-functional and the government should take cognisance of the issue. “CCTV cameras should be functional for the monitoring of the station,” said Tajinder Mohan Singh, a passenger.