Deve Gowda to meet chief ministers to fight railway crime

Syed Firdaus Ashraf in New Delhi

Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda plans to meet all state chief ministers on a priority basis to discuss measures to combat the rising crime rate on the Indian railways.

Railway passengers have had to put with a number of rapes, murder and loots in the last two months, especially in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.

As an immediate measure, Home Minister Indrajit Gupta has already requested the states to strengthen the Government Railway Police, a state police wing which -- assisted by the Railway Protection Force -- is responsible for tackling railway crimes.

The RPF's strength, Union Railway Minister Ram Vilas Paswan maintains, is woefully inadequate in many states. Bihar, for instance, has just 1,500 personnel. UP too is in more or less in a similar position.

In a bid to combat crime on trains in Bihar Chief Minister Laloo Prasad Yadav has replaced state GRP Inspector General R R Prasad and his deputy R R Verma with T P Singha and Balbir Chand. The superintendents of Parna, Jamalpur, Dhanbad and Katihar districts have also been replaced.

But this, railway officials say, will not improve the situation much, unless the authorities remedy the shortage of police personnel. Bihar needs at least a 5,000-strong force to ensure adequate protection, they point out.

The situation, it would appear, holds true in all states. The Indian Railways is the largest in the world with 62,000 kilometres of rail line. It transports 120 million-odd passengers every day, but has just 70,000 RPF personnel! Not surprising, as there has been no new recruitment in the force since 1987.

Last year, Maharashtra with 1,920 incidents topped the railway crime chart, with UP (1,843) close on its heels. Then came West Bengal (665), Bihar (584) and Gujarat (489). Assam (41), Kerala (40) and Punjab (13) recorded the least number of incidents.