Police working on stepping up security inside the trains

R. Rajaram explains the initiative of the government railway police to streamline night beat in trains.

Amid instances of crimes getting reported on board trains and on platforms, the Government Railway Police (GRP), Tiruchi District, has proposed to review the train beat system.

The authorities concerned have planned to streamline the system by coordinating with the Railway Protection Force (RPF) – also involved in escorting trains. This was to ensure that all night trains passing through the jurisdiction of GRP, Tiruchi District, were provided with escort.

Most offences on board trains were committed only late in the night and early morning hours — a convenient time for culprits to strike and escape with the booty, say railway police sources.

The GRP, Tiruchi District, has a vast jurisdiction from Villupuram to Kanyakumari in the north-south direction. The division is collecting details of trains covered only by its personnel; those covered only by the RPF and trains on board which personnel of GRP and RPF provided escort.

The focus will be more on trains passing through “crime-prone” areas. Alongside GRP personnel, a group of Tamil Nadu Special Police personnel have been drawn for providing escort on board trains over the past two months.

About 70 TSP personnel were being utilised in train beats in certain trains.

The GRP has also decided to utilise the additional manpower strength drawn from different districts for the train beat system in turns.

“The whole idea is to ensure that all night trains passing through our limits are covered by train beats in a bid to curb offences”, says the Superintendent of Police, GRP, Tiruchi District E.T. Samson.

At present, 60 to 70 trains were covered by train beats by the GRP, Tiruchi District — most of which were at night.

The railway police say photographs of the offenders targeting rail travellers would be provided to the constables deployed on train beat duty for easy identification of the criminals.

The sources say baggage lifting in trains accounted for a chunk of crime cases booked by the railway police.

A little over 190 cases of baggage lifting were reported in different trains over last two-and-a-half years in GRP, Tiruchi District limits.

Instructions had been given to treat snatching of chains from rail travellers as robbery cases, a senior officer said.