NCP chief asks GRP, RPF about women security

Mumbai: Amid a string of crimes against women at the city’s railway stations, NCP women’s wing chief Chitra Wagh met senior officers of Government Railway Police (GRP) and Railway Protection Force (RPF). The visit came on the back of four recent cases of molestation of women at CST and Churchgate stations.

Wagh submitted an application to the railway police wings, seeking an answer as to how women commuters were being targeted at crowded stations like CST and Churchgate. She also sought  details of how the railway police was planning to tackle the rising tide of such incidents..

Wagh said, “It is unfortunate that women are being targeted at bustling stations like CST and Churchgate. Do criminal elements have no fear of police despite the presence of GRP and RPF personnel there!”

She further alleged that the railway helplines started for women commu-ters were not working that would leave distressed callers in the lurch.

The GRP recently got 200 Maharashtra State Security Commission guards to replace an equal number of home guards so as to strengthen the wom-en’s security apparatus.

Wagh collected figures of crimes against women from GRP and RPF and was surprised to find that there was variation in their respective data, hinting at a lack of coordination between the two wings.

Statistics maintained by GRP pertaining to women-related crimes indicated that 32 such cases were registered in July this year, 74 cases in 2016, and 89 cases in 2015 in Mumbai. However, RPF data mentioned only seven cases in 2017 and 16 in 2016.

RPF told Wagh that it was awaiting sanction of more personnel as per the proposal sent to government. The railway officials and Wagh also discussed about removing drug addicts from station premises as they were found to be involved in most of the attacks on women.