3 min readChennaiNov 9, 2023 11:51 AM IST
First published on: Nov 9, 2023 at 11:03 AM IST
Days after a woman passenger complained of harassment inside an express train while going to Chennai and said the railway police or the travel ticket examiner did little to help her, the Government Railway Police (GRP) promised to take more measures to improve the safety of the public.
Addressing reporters on Wednesday, Suguna Singh, Superintendent of Police, Railway, Chennai, said after the woman passenger called the railway helpline number and lodged a complaint, a railway police constable at Jolarpettai station was deployed to help her.
The constable could not manage the crowd of labourers who had boarded the train from Tiruppur, Erode, and Coimbatore, and they were unable to de-board the labourers since there were no other trains on that route heading to their destination, Singh added.
He said the Government Railway Police (GRP) and Railway Police Force (RPF) have been holding meetings to address these issues and taking measures like increasing the number of TTEs in express trains and levying high penalties on those who travel on reserved coaches without valid tickets were discussed and implemented.
“We have planned a lot of measures to avoid incidents like this in the future. Until a permanent solution is arrived, we are managing to utilise our available resources and striving as much as possible to facilitate a safe journey for the passengers. Even today, there were issues in the Charminar Express commencing from Chennai, and we got them sorted,” said Singh.
“In a combined effort, the GRP and RPF managed to send stranded passengers in the Antyodaya Express and in the past week, we have been making arrangements to accommodate those unable to get a reservation in unreserved special trains,” he said.
The senior officer said, in view of Diwali, as many as 1,300 railway police officials have been deployed for bandobast and will be working round the clock on a shift basis to ensure the public’s safety.
In a Facebook post, the woman, 39, said when she entered the coach of the Rapti Sagar Express from Salem Junction to reach Chennai on Sunday, she saw a group of migrant labourers who had occupied reserved seats.
The woman said she, along with another woman and her husband, got stuck in the mob of men and were not able to move an inch and were gasping for breath.
She said after trying multiple times, she could get through the railway helpline number once and explained her situation. However, she said she received a message saying the problem had been resolved.
She alleged that after one-and-a-half hours, she got down at Jolarpettai and complained about the situation to a railway police officer who didn’t bother. Later, she got into an AC coach and after the TTE asked her to move to another coach she travelled in a pantry coach and reached Chennai.
She also claimed the doors of several coaches were closed and many passengers were pleading for help.
Some screen shots from the suffocating mob-like situation. 
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