Illegal hawkers pose security threat

Even after the Railways has installed CCTVs at stations and foot over-bridges FOBs to ensure round-the-clock security, presence of unauthorised hawkers is becoming a growing concern for the authorities. According to the railway sources, these hawkers, who pose security threat, are convicted every year but resurface after sometime. 8220;The CCTVs have been installed at FOBs for security purpose. At every station, the Railway Protection Force RPF has a monitoring cell so that they can keep a watch on the activities going on in the stations. So why can8217;t they remove illegal hawkers?8221; asked a railway official.

However, Shyam Sunder Gupta, chief public relations officer, WR, said, 8220;We initiate action against hawkers as per the law. After the blast, we have carried out a drive to remove unauthorised hawkers for ensuring safety at railway stations, but they have not been wiped out completely. The drives against them are being carried out continuously to control the increasing number of hawkers.8221;

In 2007, as many as 4301 hawkers were caught on central line and penalties amounting to more than Rs 17 lakh have been imposed on them. In 20088212; between January and October8212; over 3727 hawkers were caught and fined. An amount of over Rs 20 lakh had been collected from them too. Similarly in 2007, in Western Railway, 5281 hawkers were caught and 96 of them were jailed. In 2008, 3177 hawkers were caught and over Rs 11 lakh was collected as penalty.

SC Parhi, senior divisional security commissioner, RPF, Central Railway8217;s Mumbai division, accepted that RPF did not have detailed records of the evicted hawkers. He said, 8220;We only maintain records of place from where these hawkers were caught and not their details. But, the chargesheet submitted to the court contained every detail.8221;Besides this, the commuters also have to face inconvenience due to the presence of hawkers on FOBs.