About 368 complaints received, redressed & 227 criminals held by RPF
By- SVS, INN/Chennai, @svs037
The year 2018 has been marked as women and child safety year by Indian Railways. Board and Southern Railway GM R.K. Kulsrestha issue guideline related to it every month. RPF is seriously working on these guidelines to make railways safe for women and children.
B. Kumar
Speaking on this topic exclusively with Infodea, Southern Railway RPF IG Birendra Kumar said that year 2018 has best year for RPF. There are many task and unusual work performed by RPF personnel which helped creat a very different and good reputation among the general public.
He said that 182 helpline has received more no of complaints. People are also complaining through social media network which is lesser than helpline complaints.
Most of the time people complain about cleanliness, unavailability of facility and others than security issues.
The year 2018 has been a performing time for the Railway Protection Force (RPF, Southern Railway), it can be said. In this year, about 368 complaints were received and redressed through their helpline 182 during January to June, according to a press release from Southern Railway.
The 182 helpline became functional in Southern Railway from December of 2014 onwards. RPF received about 501 requests for help through Twitter during January to June this year for which redressal was done. During the first six months of 2018, about 37,745 persons were fined for littering in railway premises and Rs 82,55,140 was collected from them. Further, on 236 occasions, RPF seized contraband goods worth Rs 1.75 crore and 133 offenders were handed over to the agencies concerned which was widely appreciated.
Retrieval of passengers’ belongings is another noteworthy work done by RPF. Upto June this year, on 1385 occasions, vigilant RPF personnel retrieved passengers’ belongings such as cash, baggage, mobile phones, jewellery that were left behind by them in trains and railway stations and handed them over to the concerned persons/authorities.
When it comes to destitute and runaway children RPF rescued 540 kids and handed them over to their parents/child help line. Child Help Desks, in tie-up with NGOs, are functional at Chennai Central, Chennai Egmore, Madurai and Kozhikode railway stations. Such help desks are to be set up soon at 4 more railway stations. RPF also rescued 52 missing women and handed over to their relatives, law enforcing agencies concerned.
About 735 passengers who fell ill, injured during train journeys got a first aid, were sent to hospital for treatment up to June this year. During the first six months of this year, 227 criminals were held in 208 cases under RP(UP) Act and railway property worth Rs 5,02,558 was recovered, 51701 cases were booked under Railways Act and Rs 1,32,05,265 was collected as fine. About 282 criminals involved in passenger related offences were held by alert RPF staff and handed over to Government Railway Police.
On the security front, about 738 RPF personnel are escorting 318 trains that include even suburban trains and mostly night time services. A team of RPF women personnel called Sakthi Padai are escorting women special EMU trains. Women compartments of 137 local trains running between 6 pm to 6 am. The exclusive tourism helpdesks at Madurai, Rameshwaram and Thiruvananthapuram railway stations are also manned by RPF.
