A security blanket was thrown around all the major railway stations in the Guntakal Division of South Central Railway (SCR) on Saturday to prevent any untoward incident, in view of the violent protests and arsons against the ‘Agnipath’ scheme launched by the Centre for recruitment in the armed forces.
Police personnel and armed reserve personnel are guarding Tirupati, Anantapur, Raichur, and Dharmavaram railway stations to ensure passengers’ safety.
The Government Railway Police (GRP) personnel kept a tight watch over the security at Kurnool City railway station. GRP Superintendent of Police (Guntakal ) Ajitha Vejendla inspected security arrangements at Dhone and Kurnool. Additional personnel have ben deployed at all railway stations. Only those with travel tickets are being allowed to enter the station premises.
Security have been tightened at the railway stations in towns with army recruitment training facilities or regional recruitment offices.
All the trains originating from Chennai, Bengaluru, and those coming from western India, ran normally and passengers had no hassles on Saturday. Only the trains with Secunderabad/Hyderabad as a destination or originating from there got cancelled.
Memoranda submitted
However, youths gathered at many railway stations and handed over memoranda to the officers, seeking a rollback on the ‘Agnipath’ scheme. They returned peacefully after submitting the memoranda.
Additional Divisional Railway Manager K. Suryanarayana said that Anantapur Superintendent of Police Fakkeerappa Kaginelli and the Divisional Railway Manager K. Venkataramana Reddy held discussions at Guntakal on Saturday afternoon on the arrangements done to guard the properties belong to Indian Railways. The police, along with the Railway Protection Force (RPF), are guarding the properties.