Training for Railway Protection Force recruits suspended due to rising COVID-19 cases

An RPF constable died due to COVID-19, and a few training instructors tested positive for the virus, following which the training session in Tiruchi was suspended

An ongoing training session for 393 Railway Protection Force (RPF) Woman Constable Recruits in Tiruchi, which resumed only a few days ago, has been suspended in view of the death of an RPF Constable due to COVID-19 and a few training instructors testing positive for COVID-19.

The training has been suspended on instructions from the Railway Board and on the order of the Southern Railway General Manager. Based on the order, a communication has been sent from the office of the Inspector General -cum Principal Chief Security Commissioner, RPF Southern Railway, Chennai,to the RPF Zonal Training Centre at Tiruchi where the woman constables recruits were undergoing initial training.

RPF sources said an Assistant Security Commissioner, who is also the vice principal of the RPF Zonal Training Centre at Khajamalai, was among those who tested positive for COVID-19 recently.

The constable attached to the training centre who tested COVID-19 positive on July 16, had died a couple of days later. A few RPF instructors who had been taking outdoor and indoor sessions for the woman constables recruits also tested positive for COVID-19 on Sunday. A few staff of the training centre are under quarantine.

The sources said the ongoing training for the recruits had been suspended with effect from July 19 (Sunday) till further orders in view of increasing reports of COVID-19 positive cases at the training centre.

The recruit constables, hailing from various parts of the country, were accommodated at the barracks inside the training centre. Necessary precautionary measures were in force, said a senior RPF officer.

The eight-month initial training for the women constable recruits, which commenced in November last year, had to be suspended in late-March when the lockdown was clamped in view of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The recruits, who returned to their respective native States, arrived at the training centre in batches in late June, on being asked to come back for resumption of their training schedule. The training had recommenced on July 16 after obtaining approval from the RPF authorities and permission from the District Collector, Tiruchi.

Sources said the situation at the training centre was being closely monitored by the Southern Railway headquarters.