The railways, with egg on its face over the spate of thefts on the premium Mumbai-New Delhi Rajdhani Express, could do well to follow the recommendations of the Allahabad High Court on passenger safety. So far, despite city-based officials agreeing that the HC recommendations are good and far-reaching, the railway has been unable to implement in right earnest any of the recommendations.
The Allahabad High Court, hearing a sup moto petition on passenger safety, had touched upon everything from the role of ticket-checkers inside trains to the obsolete guns carried by railway security personnel as part of its recommendations.
The most important of its recommendations- making a database of season pass holders' addresses- remains largely on paper with both Western and Central implementing it in fits and starts. During the entire June 20-25 period when the city's commuters arrived in droves at the booking windows to renew their season pass to counter the fare hike, none of the booking clerks made a note of the passengers' address.
Another recommendation to get passengers to sign an undertaking authorising the railways to cancel one's pass if the passenger is involved in any railway-related or other crimes, has been a non-starter. While all the 17 railway zones in the country have come up with the format of the bond, none of them have gone ahead and implemented it. The High Court recommendation stated that 'people enjoying concession under the Railway Rules are not supposed to violate the Railways Act'.
The plan to have a Railway Protection Force helpline number like the United States 911 has been on since 2010 but without much progress. Infact Mumbai's RPF posts were taken up for the pilot project- but RPF officials said the project is still less than twenty percent through and it will still take some time before India has a national railway safety helpline. Another recommendation to have at least two seats in the S1 sleeper coach of all trains reserved for the RPF has seen the railways agree to just one seat- seat 63- in S1 coach of some trains.
The recommendations included having a system where a mike at the alarm chain level could get the passenger to speak to the guard of the train in case of an emergency. The guard in turn would be connected to the nearest police control room as well as the RPF escort party inside the train. The recommendation has a long way to go because the Railway Board has not even begun work on it.
The HC has recommended that the other railway employees on the trains- ticket examiners. coach attendants, catering staff among others- be given training to be part of any response mounted by the railway police or RPF. It has recommended that the security agencies be given short range weapons instead of the obsolete 303 rifles. However a senior RPF officer in the city said that there was almost no coordination between TTes and the escorting security team in trains and most often TTEs behave as if checking tickets is their only concern.
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