The Hindu: New Delhi: Saturday,
April 16, 2016.
Despite
having a law in place, the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) has never
penalised anyone for misusing the emergency alarm inside metro trains.
According to
Chapter 11 of the Delhi Metro Railways (Operation and Maintenance) Act, 2002,
if any passenger makes improper use of official communication equipment or
“misuses the alarm bell of the train”, then he/she is punishable by
imprisonment up to one year or fine up to Rs.1,000, or both. But none of these
punishments have been given to any violators.
Explaining
the reason, a DMRC spokesperson said, “The frequency of using the emergency
buttons is fairly low. Also, whenever the alarm is used, DMRC treats each call
as a genuine case. People even use these alarms to seek cleaning of coaches if,
say, someone has puked.”
An RTI
application filed by one Mukesh Kumar on the use of these alarm buttons has
revealed that in the past one year (March 1, 2015 to March 1, 2016) a total of
1,470 people used the facility across the network of the Delhi Metro. The reply
also stated that the maximum use of the alarm was reported from the busy Blue
Line (Dwarka, Sector 21- Noida City Centre/Vaishali), whereas the least was on
the Airport Express Line.
The
application had also sought information on the most and the least common
reasons for the use of this facility. “Responding to the query on the number of
people penalised till date for misusing the emergency button, the DMRC said
that such information was not maintained by it,” said Mr. Kumar.
The RTI
reply, a copy of which is with The Hindu , states, “The DMRC does not have the
information sought. Therefore, it does not fall under the ambit of the Right to
Information Act, 2005.”
While the
DMRC acknowledged the RTI and its reply, it maintained that it keeps a record
of every communication made by commuters through its equipment.
“We keep a
record of every call made by passengers,” said the spokesperson.
According to
law, violators can be imprisoned up to one year, fined Rs.1,000, or both
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