Chennai: Following complaints over Twitter about transgenders harassing passengers, RPF, which had earlier constituted a special task force has put in place stricter measures to combat the menace.
Also, ‘Show your ticket’ campaign by RPF started last year, is now being enforced after it was found that RPF personnel were lax at checking unauthorised entry to stations like Chennai Central.
“RPF personnel are not authorised to check tickets but they can ensure that people entering the station have a valid access. Similar to checking at airports, we are ensuring that unauthorised people don’t walk in and out of stations,” said an official.
As reported by Deccan Chronicle in April, a special task force was constituted in April after complaints of transgenders abusing rail passengers increased.
“The task force was withdrawn after there were a series of stone pelting incidents on moving trains in certain areas, which we believe were by the community as they were being harshly monitored,” said a senior RPF official. “We did not want to come down too harshly on them by singling them out. But now passengers have again started complaining about harassment, so security personnel at stations will ensure no untoward incidents happen.”
“Added security by RPF will be good for rail passengers. It is mostly male commuters who are harassed and abused. It is a good move to ask passengers to show their tickets. This will bring down the number of unwanted people at stations,” said a commuter, J. Balaji. Rail passengers assn demand more trains, faster doubling of lines.
City members of Tamil Nadu Rail Passengers’ Association have written to the Chief Minister demanding more trains and faster work on doubling of lines.
“Though the General Manager has assured that Chennai-Madurai double lining is expected to finish by March 2017, we would like doubling of Kanniyakumari –Thiruvananthapuram line be done as soon as possible as it would provide relief to passengers,” said J Susairaj, association general secretary.
The association has also demanded that Egmore-Nagercoil train that runs only on Fridays, be operated daily.
