THIRUVANANTHAPURAM:
RPF wing of Southern Railway has been undertaking a number of proactive measures to combat crimes at railway premises and on board trains. On several occasions, RPF personnel have revealed their humane face by saving the precious lives of passengers during exigencies.
RPF Train Escorts
Safety and security of passengers has ever remained one of the principal goals of RPF. One of the most effective measures taken to fulfil this responsibility is escorting of trains. In Southern Railway, on an average, 316 Mail/Express/Passenger/Suburban trains are escorted by 529 RPF Train Escorts on a daily basis. Besides, 130 EMU trains running over Chennai suburban section during night hours are being escorted by RPF. As a unique initiative, in order to ensure safety and security of women passengers,4 Ladies special trains in Chennai Division are escorted by ‘Sakthi Padai’, a women RPF squad.
RPF train escorts have been instrumental in prevention and detection of crimes, seizure of contraband goods, rescuing of destitutes and missing/runaway children and securing valuables and luggage left over by passengers.
Southern Railway RPF take stringent measures to curb unauthorised ticketing
The RPF wing of Southern Railway has been conducting intensive drives to curb unauthorised ticketing at regular intervals. Special squad of RPF are deployed all over the zone to nab touts at PRS centres and unauthorised travel agencies. During the year 2018, upto November, 259 touts were apprehended under Railways Act by the special teams of RPF. E-tickets and PRS counter tickets worth Rs.57.65 lakh were recovered. Out of 259 touts 60 touts were convicted by the respective Judicial Magistrate Courts and a fine of Rs.3.9 lakh was realised. The remaining cases are under investigation.
Out of the total, RPF wing of Chennai Division recovered Railway reserved tickets worth Rs.36.44 with the arrest of 104 touts. Tiruchchirappalli Division seized reserved tickets worth Rs.1.27 lakh with the arrest of 21 touts while in Madurai Division RPF special squad recovered tickets worth Rs.4.67 lakh and arrested 31 touts. 22 touts were apprehended in Salem Division and reserved tickets worth Rs.3.23 lakh were recovered. Similar drives were carried out in Palakkad and Thiruvananthapuram Divisions and reserved tickets worth 4.95 lakh (50 touts were held) and Rs. 7.12 lakh ( 31 touts were held) respectively.
All India RPF Helpline 182
All India Security Helpline 182 is functional in Southern Railway from the month of December, 2014 onwards to deal with rail security related complaints promptly. During the year upto October, 18360 messages for help were received from the passengers and the same were redressed on real time basis.
