Mysuru: Though railway authorities and railway minister keep telling that they accord utmost priority to safety of passengers, the ground reality remains that passengers and also the ticket checking staffs are exposed to lot of risk because of absence of security personnel.
Apart from few sleeper trains- Mysuru-Dharwad Express and Swarna Jayanthi Express, most of the trains, including Tipu Express and Chamundi Express hardly have security personnel in place. They are seen only during special drives. Though there are sanctioned RPF personnel in Mysuru division, it is not enough for the present crowd. The present 370 posts were sanctioned based on number of trains and passengers in 2001, when there were very few trains from Mysuru. Now there are overall 48 trains from Mysuru to different places, including weekly trains. There are 24 trains to Bengaluru alone, which are taken by thousands of passengers.
The safety of even ticket collector are at stake because very often they come across unruly passengers and anti-social elements as well. At times they are also threatened while following the rules. If the railway authorities fail to provide adequate security to its passengers and travelling staff members, the incident which occurred to ticket checking staff in Belagavi will become frequent.
Prakash Kumar Panda, divisional security commissioner, Mysuru division, South Western Railway said “To meet the present day demand we need nearly 700 RPF staffs, which is almost double the existing strength. The decision in this regard should be taken by the railway board. Mysuru division covers nearly 370km, we cover upto border of Hubli, Mangaluru and Chamarajanagar. Since a year we have increased escorts in train, we are providing escorts to 16 to 20 trains. We have also started night operation drive, during the drive we get feedback from the passengers and also create awareness among passengers. Every year we receive nearly 10 to 15 cases”
