Reeling under severe manpower crunch, the Railway Protection Force (RPF) has approached the registrar general of the Bombay high court to post magistrates at six railway stations on the Central Railway network, for faster hearing of several cases registered on a daily basis.
At present, the CR has only two railway courts each at Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus and Kalyan. According to RPF officers, with too many cases registered everyday, the two courts are proving to be inadequate and apart from this, their policemen have to escort the offenders to far away stations for hearings.
Hence, the RPF has sent a request to the registrar general for allotment of magistrates at Dadar, Kurla, Thane, Dombivali, Mankhurd and Panvel, which are prominent railway stations on the CR where several cases have been registered.
“Most of the offences registered under the Railway Act are bailable, and hence we have appealed to provide part time magistrates at these railway stations so that they can impose fines at the railway stations itself,” said Alok
Bohra, senior divisional security commissioner, RPF, CR.
During this year, while more than 40,000 cases have been registered, only 1,800 personnel had to handle the workload. RPF officers said that with the department being short-staffed, the process of escorting
offenders is time-consuming. “The provision of magistrates at the prominent railway stations will help faster prosecution of cases, and the police personnel will also be able to concentrate on curbing crime,” said Mr Bohra. Most of the cases registered on a daily basis include trespassing, intruders travelling in handicapped, luggage or women’s compartment, rooftop travelling, ticketless travelling and causing nuisance inside compartments.