RS witnesses uproar over issue of attack on former legislator

Opposition members in the Rajya Sabha created an uproar on Friday over an alleged attack on a former legislator of Madhya Pradesh onboard a train and criticised Minister of State for Railways Suresh Angadi for not adequately responding to the grievance.

During the Question Hour, SP member Javed Ali Khan raised the issue of the alleged attack on former Madhya Pradesh legislator Dr Sunilam onboard the Godwana Express.

The member was seeking to know what action has been taken over the July 15 incident, which was reported to the Railways through Twitter.

Khan said the former legislator was on the Godwana Express and some goons boarded the train from Beena and attacked him. Some more goons got onto the train in Bhopal and the former legislator had to save his by life hiding in a toilet and only one cop came in Hoshangabad.

"In our government, we will not spare anyone. We will catch them and hit them inside their homes. We have done that. The law of the land will take its own course," the junior minister said.

While the junior Railway minister said action will be taken as per the law and no one will be spared, opposition members created uproar after being dissatisfied with his reply.

Railway Minister Piyush Goyal came to his colleague's rescue and said the Government Railway Police (GRP), under state governments, was responsible for passenger safety while the Railway Protection Force (RPF) under central government's purview was responsible for safety of railway assets.

"Thousands of trains run in the country and crores travel in them. State governments and the central government have a joint responsibility. As per the system worked out the state railway police that comes under purview of the state government takes care of security of passengers, while the Railway Protection Force is responsible for protecting railway assets and infrastructure," he said.

The state GRP has the right to take action and investigate the cases of attacks on passengers, he noted.

"This incident was reported to the GRP and a case has been registered. Investigation is on. When the investigation will be complete, the member will be informed," Goyal told the member amid uproar by opposition members.

Earlier, Angadi said there are a total of 202 stations in the country which are sensitive.

"Out of that, in 120 stations we have already fixed cameras and WiFi is being set up by August 31, 2019," he told the House.

In response to another supplementary, the minister said as many as 1.89 lakh vacancies are in the pipeline in the coming times.

"202 Railway stations have been identified as sensitive on date. Sensitive stations are identified based on several factors like threat perception, strategic importance, crowd throughout among others.

"43, 37, 32 and 14 complaints for inadequate security have been received on such stations in the years 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019 (till May) respectively," the minister said in his written reply.