Journalism of Courage
Considering the growing number of deaths caused due to careless crossing of railway tracks,the Pune Division of the Central Railway has undertaken an awareness drive to educate people about the precautions to be taken at level crossings,especially the unmanned ones.
Last week,the Divisional Safety Department of Central Railway conducted a public awareness campaign to educate the road users of unmanned level crossing gates in Pune. There are 128 manned and 61 unmanned level crossings in the division.
Over the last few years,the number of people who die because of negligence while crossing the railway tracks has been rising. This is a very grave issue,as the family of the person who die in such incidents,collapses. Secondly,due to such accidents,many times trains have to be stopped,which throws the timetable of other trains out of gear,causing loss of time and money, Y K Singh,divisional spokesperson of Central Railway said.
During the drive,rail users were requested not to cross the track without taking proper precautions. People included students,tractor drivers,bullock cart owners,dhabha owners,ST bus drivers and conductors, he added.
This drive was conducted at a few places in the division including Lonand village and Padegaon village in Phaltan taluka of Satara district,close to Pune.
Besides explaining to people about what precautionary measures should be taken before crossing the unmanned gates,the railway authorities also distributed handbills and posters. The railway authorities are also planning to put up a skit on the issue at Pune Station very soon. They have also started showing advertisements on televisions provided at railway stations.
