194 girls among 1,359 kids rescued by RPF
2 min readPATNA: The Railway Protection Force (RPF) of the East Central Railway (ECR) rescued 1,359 minor children in its five divisions from April 2017 to March 2018. The rescued children included 1,165 boys and 194 girls.
According to RPF IG-cum-chief security commissioner Ravindra Verma, the rescued children were handed over either to their parents or to recognised NGOs for their rehabilitation. The RPF units have been kept on high alert to check child trafficking, he said and added Barauni, Muzaffarpur, Hajipur, Samastipur and Darbhanga stations were under constant surveillance of the RPF personnel for the prupose.
The RPF IG also said altogether 1,116 distress calls were received on the railways’ toll-free helpline number 182 in the ECR alone during the past 12 months. “Responding to the calls, the authorities provided medical assistance to 152 passengers at different places during the 2017-2018 fisca,” he said.
RPF teams also recovered contraband worth Rs 3.24 crore from running trains and arrested nine carriers, Verma said and added they also arrested 222 criminals for various offences at different places in the ECR.
Altogether 385 criminals were arrested and stolen railway properties worth over Rs 15.19 lakh recovered from them. Besides, RPF teams also recovered luggage of 135 from trains and later returned them to owners.
According to Danapur RPF commandant Chandra Mohan Mishra, the RPF prosecuted 34,993 people and collected a fine of Rs 1.8 lakh from the offenders during the 2017-2018 finacial year. Altogether 3,914 passengers were nabbed in connection with incidents of alarm chain pulling and Rs 26.75 lakh realised from them as fine. Altogether 876 people were sent to jail as they failed to pay fine on the spot, he said.
Mishra said RPF teams arrested 53 touts from different stations in the ECR and realised Rs 25,000 as fine from them. Altogether 6,147 vendors were also nabbed for selling eatables on railway premises without licence.
Courtesy: TNN
