THE MISSING DIMENSIONS ON SECURITY AND SAFETY OF PASSENGERS-A POINT OF VIEW-
(“INDIAN RAILWAYS”- MONTHLY MAGAZINE-
JUNE-2007- )
Honorable President of India
The President reiterated:
(1) the need to remove the division of responsibility between the Government Railway Police(GRP) and Railway Protection Force(RPF);
(2) for empowering the RPF with legal powers to tackle all cognizable offences under the Indian Penal Code(IPC) and Special Acts so that there is a single point of responsibility for tackling crimes against railway passengers.
Even three decades earlier and thereafter also there were lot of dialogue and paper work on the matter. Referring to the policing and police service in the Indian Railways and the role of the RPF, its constraints and improvement, in the 1976, Shri. P.S. Ram Mohan Rio, IPS, DGP (Retd) and former Governor of the Tamil Nadu, when he worked as DIG-cum-Chief Security Commissioner, RPF, South Central Railway had observed that “the tendency to change the RPF with policing duties on the railways is on the increase, policing on the railways in regard to both maintenance or order and prevention, detection of crime relating to the person and to the passenger should be the exclusive concern of the GRP controlled by the state Governments.
Any scheme will not only result in multiplicity of agencies, frequent overlapping of responsibilities and efforts, but what is more important will generate needless frictions between the State Police Forces on the one side and the other agencies(RPF) entrusted with similar duties on the other. There is an urgent need to have another look at the pattern of organization the RPF and bring about suitable modification to enable it (RPF) to meet at least its basic tasks”.
In May, 1985 I have submitted an Article on the subject matter for publication in the RPF Journal etc., for which my Superior Officers might have thought as not worthy to be known by others and I think, filed the same.
Without going in detail about the organizational set up of the RPF, it is suffice here to mention that in terms of ‘ The Railway Protection Force Act, 1957’, it is constituted and maintained by the Central Government ( the Ministry of Railways and not by the Home Ministry) for better protection and security of the railway property. The act has been further amended in 1985 thereby the RPF has been equated as ‘Armed Force of the Union ‘.
In additions to the railway property, enhanced functions, powers and responsibilities about the safety and security of the passengers, their belongings, and passenger area were vested on the shoulders of the RPF by another amendment to the Act in the 2003 without empowering the RPF directly and independently to deal the offences pertaining to and connected therewith which eventually comes under the purview of the IPC. In short, all such cases detected or apprehended by the RPF have to be handed over to the GRP for further legal action like registration of the case, investigation and prosecution.
I would like to mention as to how the GRP and RPF are working on the railway system by quoting a sentence, “Nothing can be farther from the truth. In essence while the soil is ruined on the one hand by excessive chemicals the input ratio on the farm increases every season. The farmer is caught in a vicious cycle”—‘Slow Death: SURYA, March, 1989’.
Here, I equate soil as the RPF, excessive chemicals as the amendments to the Acts without Police powers to RPF and retaining the GRP as it was, the farm is the Railways, and farmer is the passenger.
The RPF is empowered by Law to deal with offences falling under the definition of ‘railway property’ under the Railway Property (Unlawful Possession) Act, 1966. There was amendment to the long title of the RPF Act, 1957 in the year 2003, wherein with out changing the meaning of ‘railway property’, the title has been enlarged and substituted to include passenger area and passengers; but the definition of railway property stands as it was in the year 1957, i.e.” railway property includes any goods, money or valuable security, or animal, belonging to, or in the charge or possession of, a railway administration.”.
So, to say, that the passengers and their belongings even though they come or remain within the railway /passenger area does not belong to or in the charge or in possession of a railway administration.
This fact itself shall bar the RPF from taking any action under Law to deal any offences pertaining to the above and hence invariably under all probabilities, all such cases have to be handed over to the GRP for further legal action.
Thus, the friction and imbalance between the RPF and the GRP working stood as it was earlier even after amendments to certain Acts without touching the base element of the legal powers to RPF on the offences falling under the IPC or allied Acts.
It is more and more very clear without any ambiguity that as per the statement of objects and reasons of the RPF Act, the legislation has designed to bring about a radical change in the functioning of the department, by reorganizing it, to provide in times of need, suitable assistance to the Railway Police who are charged mainly with the responsibility for overall maintenance of law and order in railway premises.
Ironically it can be seen that ’ The Police( Incitement to Disaffection) Act, 1922 ‘ has been made applicable to the RPF by virtue of its inclusion in the RPF Act making it to the subject of the Police Force only to the extent of said Act and not otherwise.
Again some other Acts like ‘ The Payment of wages Act, 1936 ‘, ‘ The Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 ‘, ‘ The Factories Act,1948 ‘ or any other Law corresponding thereto shall not be applicable to the RPF. It is very precisely added by the Statutes to exclude the RPF as they are working on the Railways system which is an industry and for some extent the RPF personnel were regarded as Railway servants only to deal some offences under the Railways Act.
Even though here were amendments to the Rules (in the years 1988, 1999, 2001), pertaining to the Railway Notices of/and inquiries into accidents Rules, Statutory Investigation into Railway Accidents Rules, the name of the RPF has not been incorporated at any corner of the said Rules for its participation or association in any manner in any such inquiries or as one of the member in the joint enquiries. Here again the GRP alone has been included and entrusted by Law to deal such matters and not the RPF. However, in all such matters RPF officers associate in all respects, submit their reports, etc.
In spite of all such official exclusion by was of Rules and the Law, as per local orders, if there were any lapses on the part of the RPF personnel to the extent of and up to the rank of Inspectors, they shall be taken up departmentally in regard to their duties etc., connected to the railway accidents and untoward incidents, on its reports/enquiries into such incidents.
By ‘The Police Act,1949 ‘, the Central Government has constituted a police force for general police-district embracing two or more Union Territories and for the establishment of a Police Force therefore. The same procedure can be adopted to enforce a single Police Force on the Indian Railways.
It is pertinent to spell out that there can be some consensus between the State Governments and the Central Government either to merge the RPF and the GRP as one Uniformed Force only to deal the offences on the Railway system or to find out ways and means to include the RPF, now may be one of Central Para Military Forces (CPMF), and now to be brought at par and as one of the Police Force like that of the other Central Police Organizations ( BSF, CISF, CRPF, ITBP, Coast Guard, etc ) even by amending ‘ The Police Act,1888’ or ‘ The Police Act,1861’.
The Central Government can also make a separate Act like ‘ The Police Act, 1949 ‘, thereby including the RPF befitting as a Police Force to deal cases exclusively on Railways. The Central Government can also constitute a separate or special railway districts embracing parts of two or more States and Union Territories, and extend it to every such part of the said district the powers and jurisdiction of a Police Force as belonging to a State to be specified in the Notification. By this, the RPF can also be vested with the powers and functions of the Police Force on Railway’s System.
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