Maharashtra to withdraw railway demonstration cases

Union Minister of State for Railways, Ram Naik, this evening addressed a press conference at Mantralaya after a meeting with Deputy Chief Minister Gopinath Munde, office bearers of Bharatiya Janata Party in Mumbai, director general of police Arvind Inamdar, commissioner of police R H Mendonca, deputy inspector general (Railways) Sudhakar Suradkar, additional chief secretaries (Home) Karun C Shrivastava and S K Iyengar.

“Hundreds of such cases are pending in various courts in the state for more than 10 years. Most of these cases are not of a serious nature and have been filed against harassed railway commuters who were holding peaceful demonstrations. As a Union Minister, I requested the State Government to reduce the woes of the railwaycommuters by withdrawing the cases,” said Naik. The minister said that statistics about the cases was not available and police authorities concerned had been directed to collect and submit the information within a fortnight. He said Munde would decide about the withdrawal of serious cases. When asked if any cases were pending against Naik himself as he was actively involved in demonstrations against railways in his political career, he said, “There was only one case filed against me which was decided and I was awarded punishment for the same. But now the case is closed and cannot be withdrawn.”

Naik said he has asked the State Government to submit a proposal to the Union Government to increase the existing districts of the Government Railway Police (GRP). “Presently, there are only three districts of the GRP Mumbai, Pune, and Nagpur. This creates a lot of complications while handling crime on the trains. Separate districts for Vidarbha, Marathwada, Konkan, and Central Maharashtra can be easily created.The Union Government can act only after the state submits a proposal,” Naik added.

The minister has also asked the State Government to submit details of Rs 58 crore, the money the Railway ministry owes to the State Government. The money was spent on GRP personnel appointed by the State Government without getting an approval from the Railways. Naik has also asked the State Government to forward a fresh proposal for creating new posts in the GRP to effectively tackle the increasing crime on trains.