The Railway Protection Force (RPF) unit of Central Railway upped its performance for the period between January 1 and July 28 this year when compared to the same period last year leaving the railway coffers richer by a tidy sum.
While cases against men entering the compartments reserved for ladies as well as against people entering compartments meant for the handicapped increased, cases against hawkers decreased. However, the decrease in cases against hawkers is a matter of interpretation as officials claimed it was because of constant drives that the number of hawkers on railway premises decreased, while a few commuters told dna they thought it was because not enough action was taken in that account.
As per figures put out by CR's RPF Mumbai unit, the number of cases registered under various heads of the Railway Act increased from 35,762 between January 1-July 28 of 2013 to 37,131 in the same period of 2014. The fines collected rose from Rs 89,12,482 to Rs 92,44,450. The number of people jailed for various offences, however, came down from 386 last year to 255 this year, something RPF put down to the fact that with railway fines still on the lower side, people prefer to pay than to risk being sent to jail.
Section 162 of the Railway Act, which pertains to unauthorised entry into compartment reserved for women, saw a healthy rise with cases going up from 1,167 in the period last year to 2,182 this year. The fine went up from Rs 2,75,290 to Rs 5,19,800.
RPF officials said that work on evicting people — mostly children above the age of 12 — from ladies compartment has been going on at a brisk pace and the four women's teams under RPF's Panvel, Mankhurd, Kurla and Wadala posts managed to remove 1840 children above the age of 12 in June 2014. The women's team from Kurla performed the best — they removed 685 people from ladies coaches. The Mankhurd women RPF team managed 590, said officials. "Generally we don't press any charges so these cases are registered," said an RPF official.
Speaking to dna, Alok Bohra, senior commandant, RPF, CR said that the rise in cases and fines was because of the sustained efforts put in by the RPF teams on the field. "These sustained drives are imperative for increased passenger safety, especially women," Bohra said.
The numbers for the January 1-July 28 period
2013 2014
Overall cases 35,762 37,131
Fines 89,12,482 92,44,450
Jailed 386 255
Sec 162 (ladies coach) 1,167 2,182
Fines 2,75,290 5,19,800
Jailed 2 12
Sec144 (hawking) 10814 9535
Fines 3412350 3339240
Jailed 31 32
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