2018-19 will be women's safety year: Piyush Goyal

Railway minister Piyush Goyal visited Central Railway's Matunga station on Sunday, which now boasts of an women staff (51 staff). The minister announced that the year 2018-19 will be the Women safety year for the railways and special emphasis shall be given on preventing of human trafficking, with focus on children and women on railway premises. He also informed that soon we may see elevated railways over national highways.

To work on the safety of women and stop harassment or molestation on railway premises, the suburban local coaches will have CCTV installed. "The footages from the camera will be sent across to RPG, GRP and even local city police," said Goyal.

Currently, the centre is handled by RPF. While Goyal denied that the Government Railway Police (GRP) and Railway Protection Force (RPF) are at loggerheads, he claimed that an association in the form of union has started taking shape and it has to stop as it is a semi-security force and it cannot have an union or else he will be forced to decide on handing over the RPF to Home ministry.

In the anti-human trafficking and safety of woman issues, the minister claimed that he has asked the Director General of RPF to have one single number where a complainant can call throughout the country. He also said that "we don't need just manpower, but also modern CCTV cameras to tackle the issue of security."