Indian Railways
Safety & Security in Indian railways

I was travelling from Hazrat Nizammudin (New Delhi) to Secunderabad on by Rajdhani express, Train no.- 2438 on 10th Aug'08. For the last one & half years I have been travelling by flights. Since the recent hike in flight fares, I booked reservation for myself, my wife & son in the Rajdhani express in II AC.

On 11th Aug'08 morning at about 5:20 am, we found that the handbag of my wife was stolen. This happened just before reaching Jhansi railway station (Our berths were inside berths, coach- A4 & berths 37, 38 & 39, PNR no.- 215-0016503). Since Rajdhani express is AC train the windows are not openable.

I approached the coach attendant & the TT. We searched for person who had stolen the bag. There was also such theft incident in coach A3 in the adjacent compartment. We tried to find any person getting down the train at Jhansi station, but nobody got down.

After about an hour we came to know from the attendant that the handbag was stuufed inside one of the toilets in our coach.

The handbag was taken out from the comode. We had lost Rs - cash, two mobile phones (with no.- 09313551935 & 09312169922), four spectacles, my wife's voter ID card, and the handbag (white colour) was also new worth Rs 1000/-. Totally worth Rs 7000/- belongings were lost. Since the handbag was in the comode, we had to throw away the same.

The train TT (A Sardarji) told me to put up an FIR at Secunderabad railway station. After getting down at Secunderabad station at 1:30 am midnight on 12th Aug'08 (Rajdhani was delayed by 8 hours on that journey) I approached the Railway stn. police station. They did not lodge the complaint/FIR. Instead the police officer asked me to send my application to Hazrat Nizammudin Railway station or Jhansi station. I had nothing to say but to leave to my home as we were tired after travelling for 30 hours.

There was no police/security personnel in the train. I felt that India's prestigious train Rajdhani express with no safety/security arrngement. I also understood that the theft was done by some of the train attendants and more doubt on the train electrician, because we saw him moving in the compartment around the time of theft. If this is the case, there may be such theft cases daily in the so-called Rajdhani express by the inside train railway staff and this might have already become a practice to them. The passengers have only to accept this as neither the TT, nor the staff & nor the poilce will support them.

I am not bothered about the lost things but the unsafe trains we are having, where the staff steals the passenger's belongings, when they are asleep.

I hope somebody will be able to bring this in control and the staff who are involved are brought to task.

Because of such incident I cancelled my return railway reservation to Delhi and booked flight tickets.

P.Satyaprakash

(91) 09910962607

NOIDA, India

Company: Indian Railways
Country: India

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