The offices of deputy inspector-general (rail) and inspector-general (Bihar Military Police) at Pant Bhavan in Patna. Picture by Ranjeet Kumar Dey

Ziaul Hassan Khan, deputy inspector-general (rail), is a harried man. He is without an office for the past 10 months at a time when crimes on trains and along railway tracks are on the rise across the state.

The DIG (rail) is the only supervisory officer of cases registered with Government Railway Police (GRP) stations across the state. A 1997 batch officer, Khan is at the mercy of colleagues at the state police headquarters to discharge duty or he has to work from home in absence of an office.

Sources at the police headquarters said the post was vacant for over three years before Khan was asked to take charge in March 2012. Since then, he has been writing to the headquarters requesting the senior officers to provide him an office.

Inspector-general (rail) Binay Kumar said he has offered Khan to work from out of his office till he is provided one of his own. Recently, Khan and Kumar visited a railway building near the Chirayatand overbridge to accommodate the DIG (rail). Khan said: “The building of the railways is in a dilapidated condition and is unfit for the purpose.”

If that was not enough, IG (rail) Kumar has also been asked by the agriculture department to vacate his office.

This is when incidentals like eve-teasing and molestation of women passengers on trains passing through Bihar are common. A rape attempt on a 35-year-old woman from Darjeeling hit the headlines last week. She was travelling on Brahmaputra Mail when she jumped out of it between Ara and Karisath railway stations after a Jammu and Kashmir Rifles jawan and his friend tried to molest her. In July last year, Assam student Pritam Bhattacharjee went missing from Naugachhia railway station and was found murdered near Kataria station six days later.

At present, the IG (rail) functions from Pant Bhavan, a building of the agriculture department, on Bailey Road. The building also houses the office of inspector-general (Bihar Military Police) and other departments such as the disaster management department. The office of the IG (rail) has been served a notice to vacate it around two weeks ago. IG (rail) Binay Kumar confirmed the receipt of the letter. “I have informed the state police headquarters about the letter issued by the agriculture department,” Kumar said. He added that similar letters have been issued to other departments functioning out of Pant Bhavan that was originally the office of the Bihar state agriculture marketing board.

Agriculture department director Arvinder Singh said: “After the marketing board was dissolved a few years ago, the power of the board has been vested with the secretary of the agriculture department.” Sources said the department was looking at accommodating all its officials under one roof. Agriculture department secretary N. Vijaylaxmi could not be contacted. A senior officer said: “We require more space. A lot of work has to be done under the five-year agriculture roadmap.”