Mumbai’s suburban railway authorities have announced plans to acquire hi-tech security equipment, including night-vision cameras, internet-based surveillance systems, vapour detectors and bomb baskets, worth several crores. This is a welcome move, but do the railways have the manpower or the means to train this squad and maintain the equipment? These are no idle questions; Mumbai is still waiting for the bomb detection and disposal squads promised soon after 26/11. While Western Railway has got the equipment but not the personnel, Central Railway has neither.
The RPF seems to have all the time to hound journalists who expose its shortcomings — when a city tabloid exposed the abysmal state of the railway armoury, where costly equipment was dumped to rust, the reporter who broke the story was jailed under the Official Secrets Act — but not the means or the time to implement the most basic precautionary measures.
Cynics may ask why this is such a big deal in a city that is itself a sitting duck. That is because the rail network is the city’s most valuable asset and also its most vulnerable target. It has been attacked many times, to deadly effect, even before 26/11.
Suburban trains ferry seven million passengers every day. Greater the loss of human life, bigger the victory for the terrorists. There is no point thumping our chests and saying we won’t be cowed down if we are going to invite attack after attack upon ourselves because of the authorities’ callousness.
An honest mistake can be condoned, but to keep making the same mistake again and again is nothing short of criminal.
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