Konkan Railway nabs liquor worth Rs 3.28 lakh in 2016

Konkan Railway, despite having lesser number of Railway Protection Force (RPF) staff than the standard, is manfully fighting the liquor menace in its network. Statistics provided to dna by KR authorities show that in 2016, KR staff and RPF personnel patrolling trains, confiscated 4427 bottles of liquor worth Rs 3.28 lakhs and arrested 27 bootleggers against 12 bootleggers and 3936 bottles of liquor worth Rs 2.68 lakhs in 2015.

"It is very clear that KRCL and RPF are trying their best to curb this menace," said KR chief spokesperson KL Verma. KR officials who spoke to dna however maintained that, the primary responsibility of curbing liquor smuggling is with the state excise department and the police, both of which are state government organisations.

"The responsibility of the RPF is to look into passenger security, especially since KR is the connector between Mumbai and some tourist-heavy destinations like Goa and Kerala. Therefore chances of thefts of passengers' belongings from trains is fairly high and the RPF has to be fully geared to thwart it. However, as far as liquor smuggling is concerned, the RPF does carry out regular checks at stations and also inside trains to ensure that these activities are curbed. The provision of CCTV at 17 KR stations will greatly reduce these activities in future," said a senior KR official.

As reported by dna in its September 18 edition, the KR route is spread over 740 kilometre and has about hardly 80 RPF personnel at disposal, due to the large number of vacancies in their sanctioned strength of 129 personnel. Everyday, KR operates 42 pairs of express trains, 9 passenger trains and 17 freight trains, topped by a large number of holiday specials that run to cater to the passenger rush in festive seasons.