DIVISION OF RESPONSIBILITY BETWEEN THE RPF AND THE GRP-
VIS-À-VIS RAILWAY PROPERTY, PASSENGER AREA AND
THE PASSENGERS OVER INDIAN RAILWAYS SYSTEM:
(V. Seshadri, ASC/RPF/Retired)
During informal discussions with the representatives of the All India RPF Association, the Committee; the 14th Lok Sabha) found to have desired to know whether there was any coordination between the RPF and GRP for which the General Secretary, RPF Association reportedly 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, 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 reportedly 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 (made to the RPF Act) 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….”
The Preamble of the RPF Act, envisaged that the RPF is constituted and maintained for the better protection and security of railway property, passenger area and passengers and for matters connected therewith. Likewise, the Preamble of the RP (UP) Act does state –‘an Act to consolidate and amend the law relating to unlawful possession of railway property. By this, it confines its parameters to that of ‘railway property’ alone as defined in the Law. The ‘railway property’ definition nevertheless does not include ‘the passenger area and passengers’ or ‘the offence(s) committed and/or connected therewith’. It may be observed that as contained in section 3 of the RPF Act, that 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 has been substantially curtailed and in my considered opinion there are no authority and powers to deal any of the cases falling within the meaning of passenger area and passengers or their belongings, like theft of passenger’s luggage, assaults and other offences falling within the IPC section ,and emphatically, even if they (RPF) apprehend any culprit or recover such property belonging to the Passengers, 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 ( Case registration/FIR, and Investigation ).
This excludes the RPF from registration of any FIR even if they detect such type of cases. Thus, the very purpose, proposed /for ‘better protection and security’ of the passenger area and passengers’ as expected by the Legislation is found to have been defeated. At the most the RPF is to be treated as the Assisting Force of the GRP.
In this context, 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, one shall not forget the speech and the vision of the (Former) Honourable President of India, Dr. A. P.J. Abdul Kalam while presenting President's Colours to the RPF on 22nd May, 2006 containing certain valuable observations and suggestions to the, Government of India, the Ministry of Railways, the Railway Board, the RPF, which include:
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.
· In this connection as a reference-kindly go through the Articles published in monthly Magazine" Indian Railways"-PRESIDENT OF INDIA PRESENTS PRESIDENTIAL COLOURS TO RAILWAY PROTECTION FORCE JULY 2006); and, V.Seshadri’s -Article - “(THE MISSING DIMENSIONS ON SECURITY AND SAFETY OF PASSENGER-A POINT 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; one work as per Different State Governments Orders and the other as per Ministry of Railways Orders).
It may also be noted that in some the States there is provision of the GRP, but the District/Local Police itself shall take of the L&O, Crime Control over the Indian Railways System in those Jurisdiction.
Can we expect the reality to have a unified single ‘Uniformed Indian Railway Police Force- exclusively for the Indian Railways System’ to deal all the matters of ‘railway property, passenger area, and passengers, and the matters connected there with?
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