The Delhi High Court on Friday sought the Centre’s response on a plea seeking safety and security measures, like baggage scanners, hand-held metal detectors and CCTV cameras, at all railways stations in the country.
A Bench of Chief Justice D.N. Patel and Justice C. Hari Shankar issued notice to the Ministry of Railways on the plea which has alleged that there is a lack of safety and security measures, including anti-collision devices, at most of the stations in the country.
Lawyer Kush Kalra contended in his petition that he had brought to the attention of the Indian Railways the lack of safety measures at various stations, yet it did not taken any steps.
The petition claimed that the Railways, in replies to RTI queries, admitted that it had received huge budgetary allocations for providing safety and security measures at all stations.
“Despite the availability of resources, the Respondent [Railways] has failed to implement and take necessary steps towards making railway stations safe and secure through installation of the desired safety and security mechanism,” the plea contended.
The petitioner also claimed that railway stations are soft targets for terror attacks and the only way to avoid them was to beef up the security.
“Some safety and security measures already exist at some railway stations, but are completely absent from the others. The respondent cannot adopt a pick-and-choose method and decide in its own wisdom to identify railway stations for installation of safety and security measures to the exclusion of the others,” he said.
