Hassles related to jurisdiction are expected to become a thing of the past for victims of crimes aboard the country’s railway network, thanks to a pan-India helpline.
Unveiled by Minister of State (MoS) for Home Affairs Haribhai Parthibhai Chaudhary, the All India Railway Helpline number, 1512, is all passengers need to remember and utilise in the event of falling prey to a crime on railway property including both running trains in addition to platforms and stations across 27 States and all Union Territories.
Mr. Chaudhary also made a test call to the helpline at its launch function before commending the Delhi Police, which instituted its maiden call centre at its local railway unit, for having among the lowest crime rate related to incidents involving the railways in the country.
Pursued for over a year and the brainchild of his force, several interstate coordination meetings were held in the course of the development of the said helpline according to Delhi Police Commissioner Bhim Sen Bassi.
“Several inter-state coordination meetings were held to formalise the All India helpline number whereby control rooms were set up in the States. The helpline is also provided with a geo-fencing feature so that a call by a railway passenger on it is received by the concerned control room in a State,” Mr. Bassi said at the helpline’s launch adding that his officers pursued it relentlessly with the Department of Telecom (DoT) over a year.
Sanjay Bhatia, DCP (railways) said the objective of the helpline was to substantially shorten response time by ensuring that calls about instances of crime got logged directly with it before being relayed to the nearest railway police station.
“The time between the occurrence of the crime and the commencement of investigation related to it is key when it comes to trains and transit points such as railway stations; this helpline will ensure that those allegedly behind the execution of a crime are pursued as soon as possible,” Mr. Bhatia told The Hindu .
Meanwhile, Mr. Bassi chose to detail various tech-based Delhi Police initiatives aimed at helping common people especially the Himmat App for women saying that efforts were being made to work on the “smart” police station concept given by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the DG’s conference last year.
“Working on the dream of the PM Narendra Modi we will not just convert one police station in each district into a ’smart’ police station but make the whole of Delhi Police into a ‘smart’ force,” he said.
