150 prosecuted for violating fire safety norms in trains

Hyderabad, Jan 22 : The South Central Railway has recently conducted a fortnight long special safety drive on prevention of fire accidents in trains all over its network in this January. The Railway Protection Force (RPF), Government Railway Police (GRP) and Commercial Staff were involved in joint checks to curb irregularities during the period.

As a result of the safety drive, 106 hawkers / vendors were prosecuted under the Railways Act and an amount of Rs 43,000 was realized as penalty. In addition 44 trespassers were booked and prosecuted, yielding an amount of Rs 4,400 as penalty. Two passengers were caught smoking in railway premises and taken up under Tobacco Act, realizing Rs 200 from each of them as fine for the offence.

The safety drive focused on different aspects related to fire safety in Railway premises, with over 3100 checks conducted by railway officials in coordination with RPF and GRP in trains and at stations during the fortnight. 366 checks were meant to detect offences such as carriage of gas cylinders, explosive material, crackers and other inflammable articles in passenger carrying trains. 200 Random surprise checks were conducted to inspect luggage and parcel material before loading in trains. Besides, 346 checks were also conducted on smoking by parcel porters / labour in the course of their duty, 355 checks were against unauthorized vendors selling tea, coffee, eatables etc., in the trains by using stoves/sigries and 365 checks were meant to detect passengers cooking in the trains and station areas.

The safety drive also focused to verify the availability of fire extinguishers in locomotives, air conditioned coaches, pantry cars, luggage cum brake van coaches, proper maintenance and up keep of electrical equipments in pantry cars, working condition of voltage protection devices, miniature circuit breakers, earthing, wiring, insulation material etc. The working knowledge of the staff in operating the fire extinguishing equipment was also checked.

With a view to spread awareness on various issues related to incidents of fire, intensive publicity in both print and electronic media on the hazards of carrying inflammables and explosive materials by trains was undertaken during the said period. Publicity was also ensured through CCTV network at stations and the Public Address System and banners on safety were erected at entry/exit gate of major stations. INN