By Our Correspondent
NEW DELHI/BHUBANESWAR: Railway Protection Force (RPF) of Indian Railways is committed to take continuous preventive measures to protect and safeguard railway passengers, passenger area and railway property. RPF is entrusted with the responsibility of security of railway property, passenger area and passengers. The force has been working round the clock for providing safe, secure and comfortable travel experience to the passengers. It helps Indian Railways in providing safe freight transport service to its customers. RPF has ably discharged the responsibility of protection of huge assets of railways spread far and wide across the country by taking preventive measures as well as measures for detection of crime against railway property.
A brief of the achievements of RPF during the Financial Year 2022 – 2023 is as under –
Rescue of children & Operation Nanhe Faristey:- Ministry of Railways in collaboration with Ministry of Women and Child Development (MoWCD) issued Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) on 05/03/2015 for better care and protection of children in distress in contact with Railways. In order to include all the prevalent guidelines/ provisions/instructions/directives etc. in the SOP, a ‘Revised SOP for the Railways’ 2021 has been issued on 23.12.2021. In accordance with SOP, presently CHDs are operational at 143 railway stations. RPF has played important role in reuniting the children lost/separated due to several reasons from their family and rescued more than 17000 Children in need of care & protection who came in contact with Indian Railways during the period i.e. FY 2022 – 2023
In this regard, an intensive drive viz. ‘NanheFaristey’ has been launched on Indian Railways to rescue children in need of care and protection found in trains/railway station and this is showing remarkable results.
Human Trafficking & Operation AAHT– In order to have an effective mechanism to avert endeavours of the Human traffickers, as per Standard Operating Procedure issued in 2022, Anti Human Trafficking Units of RPF are operational at the post level(Thana level) at more than 740 locations over the Indian Railways. These AHTUs are in regular touch with agencies involved in preventing human trafficking and have assisted them in rescue of children being trafficked. During the FY (2022 – 2023), 604 persons were rescued from the clutches of traffickers with arrest of 207 traffickers. RPF has signed an MoU with Association of Voluntary Action (a foundation of Nobel Laureate Sri Kailash Satyarthi) also known as BachpanBachaoAndolan on 06.05.2022 for association in capacity building of RPF & Railway men raid, rescue and sharing of information on Human Trafficking. Further to strengthen the AHTUs being operated by RPF, MHA has sanctioned an amount of Rs. 12.6 Cr.
Emergency Response & Operation ‘Yatri Suraksha’ –
In order to redress security related complaints of passengers in distress and for immediate assistance, passengers can make complaint on Rail Madad Portal or through helpline No. 139 (integrated with Emergency Response Support System No. 112). During the FY (2022- 2023), more than 2.4 lakh complaints were received and appropriate necessary action was taken to resolve them. Also, railways are in regular touch with passengers through various social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Koo etc. to enhance security of passengers & to address their security concerns.
Operation “JeevanRaksha”: – Due to alertness and swift action by RPF, life of 873 male and 543 female passengers were saved by Team RPF in platforms, railway track and trains in the FY 2022 – 2023 under operation JeevanRaksha.
Luggage Retrieval & Operation Amanat– During the FY 2022 – 2023, RPF retrieved left behind luggage having value to the tune of more than Rs 50 Crores belonging to 32,337 passengers and returned them after due verification. RPF has been doing this service for passengers under “Operation Amanat”.
Women Security & Operation “Matrishakti” – Safety and security of women passengers has been an important concern of Indian Railways. In this regard, an initiative “Meri Saheli” has been launched from 17.10.2020 to provide security to lady passengers in long distance trains, particularly those travelling alone or those who are vulnerable to crime. Other preventive measures to ensure security of lady passengers like train escorting, CCTV system at 864 stations and about 6646 coaches, lady escorts in ladies special suburban trains, mixed escorts in trains, regular drives against unauthorised passengers in ladies coaches etc are also being implemented.
Further, RPF personnel especially ladies RPF personnel which is currently 9% of the total strength of RPF (highest among uniform forces), go out of the way to help pregnant women who go into labour during their train journey or in Railway premises. During the year FY 2022 – 2023, RPF has assisted 158 women in train and 220 women in railway premises in child birth under ‘Operation Matrishakti’.
Action against touts & Operation “Uplabdh” :-– In this regard during the FY 2022 – 2023, 4280 nos. of the touts have been arrested and action against them was taken as per law.
Regular drives are conducted by RPF teams against touts over Indian Railways. During action against touts, more than 140 illegal softwares were disrupted with arrest of developers, super sellers, sellers & retailers of such illegal softwares.
Operation “Rail Suraksha” – As per mandate to safeguard railway property and to take legal action against crime involving railway property, RPF apprehended 9179 persons involved in such crime with recovery of stolen Railway Property worth Rs. 6.3 Crores during the FY 2022 – 2023.
Operation “NARCOS” :- The Government of India through its notification no.1403 dated 11.04.2019 published in Extraordinary Gazette of India S.O. 1582(E) have empowered the officers of the Railway Protection Force, of the rank of Assistant Sub-Inspector and above, to search, seize and arrest under Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act. During the FY 2022 – 2023, 1022 persons have been arrested along with seizure of NDPS valued Rs. 81 Crores and arrested criminals were handed over to empowered agencies for further legal action.
Operation ‘WILEP’ :- Smuggling of Wildlife and animal parts is crime against nature. RPF has been alive to the issue and has taken stringent action against the smugglers involved in illegal trade of wildlife and recovered several restricted wild life i.e. Birds, Snakes, Tortoise, Peacock, Reptile etc. and their processed products along with Sandal wood & other flora & fauna.Team RPF has detected 108 cases and 68 accused were arrested during the FY 2022-2023 under operation WILEP.
