DNA: Mumbai: Sunday, August 28,
2016.
The fact that
Thane station, with 11 platforms and hundreds of suburban and outstation trains
halting there, is one of the country's most congested is stating the obvious.
In the days to come it will get even more crowded, because the railways last
week announced that eight more trains will have halts at Thane from the first
week of October. These four pairs of trains are highly patronised ones the
12811/2 LTT-Hatia Express, the 12879/80 LTT-Bhubaneshwar Express, the 22107/8
Latur-CST Express and the 12865/6 LTT-Puri Express.
The station
already sees a footfall of more than 9 lakh passengers a day and some of its
foot overbridges are among the most crowded in the country. Thane currently has
69 RPF personnel manning the station and nine CCTV operators handling 96 CCTV
cameras.
However, all
these have not stopped the railways from stonewalling a Right to Information
(RTI) plea by an activist who wanted to know how the railways planned to ramp
up security for the station.
Speaking to
dna, Ramachandra Karve, banker-cum-railway activist, said he was surprised by
the refusal of the Railway Protection Force to give information pertaining to
some of his queries.
"I had
sought information on whether revision in the sanctioned strength and actual
strength of the RPF is carried out with firstly an increase in the number of
platforms at a particular station, like Thane, secondly whether an indent or
request for increasing the said strength is submitted periodically to the RPF
and railway administration for necessary action, and thirdly, whether the
sanctioned strength and working strength are revised for stations like Thane
with an increase in the volume of passenger traffic handled," said Karve.
The RPF
informed Karve that answers to these queries would not be given because the
three queries serve any public interest and hence could be refused under clause
8(1)(a) & (i) of the RTI Act.
"There
has to be a corresponding increase in RPF personnel when the passenger traffic
and platforms increase at a station. Thane, in the past 12-15 years, has seen
its platforms increase from six to 11 now, which includes platform 10A. Their
refusal to answer these queries reflect lack of understanding and concern on
part of the RPF administration regarding security problems. This is
unfortunate," said Karve.
He added that
he planned to appeal. "Understaffed RPF cannot deal effectively with
anti-social elements or those who risks the security of a station as well
bonafide passengers using it," said Karve.
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