South Western Railway’s Railway Protection Force (RPF) officials have achieved significant milestones in their service.
The officers and personnel have been working in safeguarding railway property, passenger areas and the well-being of travellers. They are also assisting Indian Railways in delivering reliable freight transport services to its customers.
In April 2024, RPF personnel rescued 22 children, including four girls, who were separated from their families, and reunited them.
Officials were involved tracing, protecting and reuniting the children under the Operation Nanhe Farishthe.
Similarly, under Meri Saheli initiative, RPF protected women travellers by collecting seat or berth numbers of single female passengers and sharing the information with officials all along the route of their travel.
At the destination, feedback from the identified passengers is collected for corrective response.
Meri Saheli members also help women passengers in availing of autorickshaw or bus services and in carrying belongings of elderly and needy passengers. As many as 28 trains have been identified under this operation.
RPF has been cracking down on touts under Operation Uplabdh. The fight against touts has helped facilitate common passengers in getting reservation tickets and has curbed the menace of black marketing of tickets.
Special drives have been conducted at travel agencies or agents all over Karnataka and Goa. As many as 23 cases have been registered and 24 touts arrested and prosecuted under Section 143 of the Railways Act. As many as 845 tickets worth over ₹12 lakh have been seized under this.
RPF officers were involved in Operation NARCOS - to combat drug-related offences.
On six occasions, a total of 50.885 kg of ganja valued at ₹49,90,500 has been seized and three offenders arrested and handed over to the authorities concerned for further legal action.
In 37 instances, RPF has provided swift response to passenger’s concerns. The personnel recovered items left by passengers such as laptops, mobile phones, gold or silver ornaments and other personal belongings in all worth ₹10,61,990 and returned them to their rightful owners.
Under Operation Yatri Suraksha, RPF supplements the efforts of the police in preventing and detecting crimes against railway passengers. In April alone, RPF officers arrested three criminals involved in offences against passengers and delivered them to the authorities concerned. Gold ornaments weighing 106 grams worth ₹4,77,000 stolen from passengers and four mobile phones worth 70,000 were recovered and handed over to passengers.
Operation Satark involves curbing illegal goods transportation. On 42 occasions, RPF recovered 961 unclaimed liquor bottles total worth ₹8,34,776 and handed them over to the Excise Department for further legal action.
As many as six cases have been filed under Railway Property (Unlawful Possession) Act 1966.
As many as 16 accused persons have been arrested under the provisions of the Act and railway property worth ₹2,15,667 out of the stolen property worth ₹2,18,467 recovered.
As many as 2,602 cases have been registered and 2,574 offenders arrested under various sections of Railway Act. A total of ₹4,19,300 has been collected in fine.
General Manager Arvind Srivastava has expressed gratitude to the RPF personnel for their service, said a release from Chief Public Relations Officer of South Western Railway, Hubballi, Manjunath Kanamadi.
