Home ministry’s help sought to tackle thefts in trains

NEW DELHI - The railways ministry Wednesday sought help of the home ministry to crack down on increasing incidents of thefts and passengers being drugged in trains.

In a letter to Minister of State for Home Affairs Mullappally Ramachandran, Minister of State for Railways E. Ahamed requested him to reiterate the directives to tackle such activities.

“Ahamed requested the home ministry that clear cut directives need to be reiterated to all concerned to see that these instances of theft and drugging of passengers are immediately put down with a very heavy hand and confidence restored among the travelling public,” a railway ministry statement here said.

“The security on railway premises is controlled by the state police and the Railway Protection Force has only limited power for safeguarding railway property” so the home ministry should step in, the statement said.

Ahamed, who reviewed the safety of passengers at a high-level meeting here, also directed the Railway Board “to chalk out a strategy to immediately arrest the recurrence of such incidences causing loss and mental agony to the passengers”.

The Railway Board chairman and Railway Protection Force (RPF) director general also attended the meeting.

The meeting was held in the wake of an incident of theft at the Nizamuddin Railway Station when suitcases of passengers of a Kerala-bound Nizamuddin-Ernakulam Duronto Express were stolen on June 26.

“Director general RPF has already taken up the matter with the state police authority of Delhi, Kerala and other parts of the country. One person has been booked and two suitcases have been recovered from him,” the statement said.