Patna, June 30: The Patna Sahib railway station is under the grab of unauthorised vendors. So much so that one hardly finds licensed vendors on the three platforms of this railway station. Even the station premises sport an ugly look because of the shops set up by the encroachers.

The security personnel deputed there to check the presence of such unauthorised persons have chose to look the other way as far as controlling this menace is concerned.

Sources at the railway station said Government Railway Police (GRP) personnel were hand-in-glove with the unauthorised vendors.

“These vendors give cut money to GRP personnel on a daily basis,” said a source.

The repeated requests of the railway officers to the GRP to remove the unauthorised vendors have allegedly fallen on deaf ears.

Not only the lower-rung personnel, even the senior GRP officers have chosen to ignore the requests of the railway officers to check the menace.

The Patna sahib railway station manager had written a letter in February 2010 to the GRP inspector, Fatuha, to look into the matter but no corrective steps were taken.

Irked over the apathy of the GRP officers, the station manager has now written a letter to the senior divisional manager of East Central Railway, drawing his attention towards the problem.

“Our repeated requests to GRP to remove the encroachment from the railway station premises and unauthorised vendors from the platforms have proved to be of no help. The presence of such elements has damaged the reputation of the railway station. Hence, I request you to look into the issue and take corrective steps,” reads the letter, a copy of which is with The Telegraph.

The letter also highlights the fact that Patna Sahib railway station is very important from the tourism point of view as a large number of tourists from across the country come here as the Patna Sahib Gurdwara is just 1km away from the railway station. It happens to be the birthplace of the last and 10th Sikh guru, Guru Govind Singh.

Expressing concern over the encroachment problem, Danapur division public relations officer of Indian Railways R.K. Singh said: “We have sent a letter to the state government in this regard and we also had a meeting with the inspector-general (railway) on the issue but nothing much has moved on this front.”

Patna rail superintendent of police Suresh Choudhary said evicting the unauthorised vendors was the duty of Railway Protection Force (RPF) and not the GRP.

None of the senior RPF officers were available for comments.