September 2: A spat between the Konkan Railway Corporation Limited (KRCL) and railway policing agencies over the issuance of railway passes to police personnel has snowballed into a controversy, with the Government Railway Police (GRP) and Railway Protection Force (RPF) refusing to escort trains passing through routes beyond their respective jurisdiction.Since the last month, the GRP, assigned to protect trains to prevent dacoities, has been escorting trains passing through the Konkan Railway only up to Thane. ``Our personnel were recently asked to disembark from the train by Konkan Railway ticket collectors even though they had duty passes. They were told that their passes were not valid in this railway,'' said K Ramachandran, Superintendent of Police (GRP).The issue, however, dates back to well before KRCL started services. In a letter to Ramachandran dated November 29, 1995, chief security commissioner of KRCL, S S Joshi, had said since even KRCL employees were not issued passes, it would not bepossible to provide thr GRP two berths on their trains. ``But we continued to escort the trains until the incident at Thane took place,'' said Ramachandran.This lack of access on the Konkan route has irked the GRP. ``We have our network all over the country. Why then are we being kept out of this route?'' asked a senior GRP official. The corporation is putting the safety of passengers to risk just to save a few crore rupees, alleged officials. The GRP is funded by the state government and the railways on a 50:50 basis. And the KRCL is struggling with a Rs 3,000 crore debt and daily losses of more than Rs 75 lakh.Though KRCL authorities admit that money did play a part in keeping the GRP out, they claim that the actual reason is the GRP's dismal record in dealing with crime on railways. ``Both senior railway officials as well as passengers have been unhappy with the GRP's record in solving cases,'' said Anoop Srivastava, deputy security commissioner of KRCL.In the absence of railway policing, thelocal police have taken over law and order. ``The state police have been so cooperative that we have not felt the need for a separate force to deal with law and order problems,'' said Srivastava.The crime rate on the route was negligible enough to be dealt with by the 90-odd RPF personnel on deputation to KRCL from other railways, he claimed. ``We have had no serious crimes reported in the last one year, apart from one case of pickpocketing, and five cases of rioting,'' he added. Interestingly, these five cases have been on account of rioting by passengers over delay in train services. Two days ago, a station master was assaulted near Ratnagiri when a technical fault held up services for over two hours.
