The Railway Protection Force (RPF) in Asansol has drawn the line on track trespassers — no mild raps and fines but jail.
The crackdown comes in the wake of the Amritsar tragedy on Dussehra evening when 60 people on the tracks watching a burning Ravan effigy were run over by a speeding train.
In the Asansol division of Eastern Railway, at least 300 lives are lost every year in track-related incidents, RPF officers said. According to the officers, they used to earlier let off trespassers after warnings but have now started taking stronger action against them under the Indian Railway Act, 1989.
“In most cases, railway magistrates are now imposing fines of Rs 500 to Rs 1,000 but if the person is again found breaking the law, he or she will be arrested and could be punished with six months’ imprisonment,” said Achyutanand Jha, senior RPF divisional security commissioner in the Asansol division.
The RPF has fined 80 passengers in the past two days alone in Asansol. In 2016, the force had arrested 370 people for the offence and collected fines of Rs.1.87 lakh from another 366 offnders. The figure doubled in 2017. In the current year till September, 627 persons were arrested and another 626 fined Rs 3.32 lakh.
“Legal action is not enough to stop the menace. Our aim is not to realise fines from offenders but to create awareness. If people are not aware (that crossing the tracks is an offence), it is not possible for us to check them completely,” said another RPF officer.
Other officials said 241 pairs of trains run through the Asansol division, ferrying 1.4 lakh people, daily.
“It is not possible to keep vigil on each passenger with only 1,100 RPF personnel in the division. Apart from vigilance on platforms, we have the responsibility to escort 50 trains daily,” said the RPF official.
According to commissioner Jha, passengers are also being asked not to rush on foot over-bridges. “We are asking them to come to stations on time so that they do not need to rush,” said Jha.
Taking a lesson from the stampede at Santragachi in Howrah last week in which two persons died, the Asansol officials have deployed additional personnel on bridges at all stations to check rush.