DIVISION OF RESPONSIBILITY BETWEEN THE RPF AND THE GRP-VIS-À-VIS RAILWAY PROPERTY, PASSENGER AREA AND THE PASSENGERS OVER INDIAN RAILWAYS SYSTEM:

DIVISION OF RESPONSIBILITY BETWEEN THE RPF AND THE GRP-VIS-À-VIS RAILWAY PROPERTY, PASSENGER AREA AND THE PASSENGERS OVER INDIAN RAILWAYS SYSTEM:

FUNDAMENTAL DUTIES OF THE RPF: SCOPE, AMBIT AND LIMITAIONS:

 In fact, as per the preamble and directions of the Superior Officers, and/or in aid to the GRP/Local Police, RPF duties include;

For the better protection in and security of:

(A): railway property;

(B): PASSENGER AREA; AND

(C): PASSENGERS.

The Preamble of the RPF Act,1957- with its amendment, by Act 60 of 1985, which came into effect from 20-9-1985, states’ an Act to provide for the constitution and regulation of an Armed  \force of the Union for the better protection and security of railway property, passenger area and passengers and for matters connected therewith’.

The Preamble of the RP (UP) Act does state –‘an Act to consolidate and amend the law relating to unlawful possession of railway property; thus, it confines its parameters to that of ‘railway property’ alone as defined in the Law. The ‘railway property’ nevertheless does not include ‘the passenger area and passengers’ or ‘the offence(s) committed and/or connected therewith’.

The Preamble of the RPF Act as further amended by the Act 52 of 2003 which came in to effect from 01-7-2003,the constitution, regulation of the RPF, an Armed Force of the Union is for the better protection and security of railway property, passenger area and passengers, but in fact, the same inclination and spirit does not found to have been incorporated in section 3 of the RPF Act, wherein the words’ passenger area and passengers’ found to have been not included in ’railway property’.  By section 3 of the Act, the RPF is constituted and maintained for better protection and security of railway property.

By this exclusion of specific and desired words ‘passenger area and passengers’, from within the section 3, the ambit and scope of the RPF within meaning of this Act may differ and the RPF personnel, in my considered opinion have no authority and powers to deal any of the cases falling within the meaning of passenger area and passengers and emphatically, even if they apprehend any culprit in the course of their duties, they have to, invariably, forward the case to the GRP(Government Railway Police) with their Report for further necessary action.

 This excludes the RPF from registration of any FIR even if they detect such type of cases. Thus, the very purpose, / proposed of/for ‘better protection and security’ of the passenger area and passengers’ as expected by the Legislation is found to have been defeated.

During informal discussions with the representatives of the All India RPF Association, the Committee; the 14^th Lok Sabha) found to have desired to know whether there was any coordination between the RPF and GRP and the General Secretary, RPF Association reported to have stated that so long as the RPF is weak in respect of legal power, one cannot expect cooperation from a powerful agency (the GRP).

When the Committee asked for suggestions in this regard, the General Secretary, AIRPFA, found to have clarified by stating… “…My suggestion is we should have a Unified Force.  Once you have a very powerful agency (RPF), then they (GRP) will cooperate.  The district police are cooperating, but the GRP is not cooperating because they want to be there (in the Railway’s System) without any accountability.”

On being asked about the coordination between GRP and RPF, the Ministry of Railways reported to have informed the Committee that - “A Committee has been constituted comprising of officers from Railways, RPF, IB and Police.  This Committee is deliberating upon the issues involved including better policing and coordination between RPF and GRP. However, it is desirable to have a Unified Police Force to protect Railways, passengers and property of passengers.”

The Committee in its ‘Recommendations’ (8 December, 2009) - viewed that…” The Committee, after hearing the views of the Ministry of Railways (Railway Board) and the representatives of the All India RPF Association, feel that the proposed amendments are insufficient to provide sufficient powers to the Railway Protection Force.  They also felt that unless more powers are given to the Railway Protection Force and some statutory mechanism is devised to have a better coordination among the State Police, Government Railway Police and Railway Protection Force, the proposed amendments may not be able to fulfill the requirements of the Railway Protection Force….”

In this context, one shall not forget the speech of the former Honorable President of India's words and vision spelt very clearly while presenting President's Colours to the RPF in the year 2006.
(Former) Honourable President of India Dr. A. P.J. Abdul Kalam has presented the Presidential Colours to the Railway Protection Force on 22^nd May, 2006 with certain observations and suggestions to the RPF / the Government of India, the Ministry of Railways, the Railway Board, New Delhi,

 to make rail journey safer and secure to the 12 million people including the tourists who are making use of the rail services every day.

The Hon’ble President reiterated:

The need to remove the division of responsibility between the Government Railway Police (GRP) and Railway Protection Force (RPF);

(1)  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.

The Articles published in monthly Magazine" Indian Railways"-PRESIDENT OF INDIA PRESENTS PRESIDENTIAL COLOURS TO RAILWAY PROTECTION FORCE-JULY-2006);in this connection, kindly go through  the Article written by V.Seshadri -The Article - “(THE MISSING DIMENSIONS ON SECURITY AND SAFETY OF PASSENGER-A POOINT OF VIEW-JUNE-2007) .

There shall be a day, in future, which is still awaited and eager to celebrate over the Railway's System when there can be only one Police Force and not TWO as we see today- the RPF and the GRP- both work independently and separately under two different heads and one work as per State Governments orders and the other as per Ministry of Railways orders. When one can expect the reality to have unified single ‘Uniformed Indian Railway Police Force- for the Indian Railways’ to deal all the matters of ‘railway property, passenger area, and passengers, and the matters connected there with, by keeping aside all the types of privileges and what not?