Jamshedpur, April 17: The Chakradharpur division of South Eastern Railway, one of the highest revenue generating divisions in the country, is racing towards notoriety.

A glance through the records over the past few years throw up a shocking fact: over 200 cases of unnatural deaths reported each year from the 74 stations under the jurisdiction of the division.

Apart from cases of murder in trains, which shows a serious fault on the part of the railway administration in terms of passengers safety, suicide on tracks and people found dead under unnatural circumstances on railway premises are also common in the division. This in spite of the fact that the division gets more than Rs 5 crore annually for passenger safety.

A senior officer, associated with passenger safety in the division, admitted: ?Under any circumstance, death on railway track, train or premises is considered a security lapse on part of the railway police as well as the administration.?

?It is the duty of the railway administration to ensure that no one except those associated with maintenance of railway track is allowed to venture on the tracks. If a person succeeds in ending his life on track, it is definitely a security lapse.?

He pointed out that recovery of a body from the tracks is also a lapse on the part of the railway police because they are responsible for patrolling the tracks round-the-clock. ?There is no way they can escape responsibility saying that a body was thrown on the tracks at night,? the officer said.

Railway officials conceded that patrolling by the government railway police and railway protection force is irregular.The state inspector general of police (railways) A.K. Sinha said out of these large number of deaths that are reported from Chakradharpur division, maximum are cases of suicide, electrocution and recovery of unidentified bodies. ?Only a handful of cases are directly linked murders. At most one or two case of murders are reported in a month. It is certainly a security lapse but it cannot be termed alarming,? said Sinha.

He said in cases of suicides and electrocution, the lapses cannot be checked. ?In cases of suicide and electrocution, it is not the police but the railway administration that should be held responsible. They should be asked to install structures that can prevent people from venturing near high voltage wire and tracks.?

Senior divisional commercial manager M.N. Ojha, also the spokesperson of the Chakradharpur division, admitted that large number of deaths on railway premises is a disturbing fact.

?Any type of death on railway premises shows security lapse but it is very difficult to prevent cases of suicide as vast stretches of track pass through remote areas,? added Ojha.