Tamil Nadu Railway Police have been working with a huge shortage of manpower that was sanctioned in 1979, according to its Deputy Inspector General of Police J. Bhaskaran. Inspecting the office of the Deputy Superintendent of Police (TRP) at Madurai junction, Mr. Bhaskaran said the shortage was being made up with five companies of Tamil Nadu Special Police deployed for railway security-related duty on platforms and trains.
Out of the 1,800-odd sanctioned strength, the TRP was facing a shortage of over 300 personnel. “While the State government was ready to sanction additional strength, the railway authorities were not coming forward to sanction the required strength despite the ever-increasing railway facilities and increased number of train services,” Mr. Bhaskaran noted. “After we introduced the concept of closing the doors of coaches of running trains between 1 a.m. and 4 a.m., incidents of chain snatching and bag lifting have come down drastically in the last 20 days,” he said.
With increased awareness among the passengers, incidences of ‘biscuit bandits’ looting passengers after drugging them had also considerably reduced, he added.
