In a bid to stop the teenagers and children, living near railway tracks, from pelting stones on trains, Railway Protection Force (RPF) of East Coast Railway (ECR) has identified certain areas from where such cases are reported frequently and deployed personnel, in mufti, to patrol along the tracks and counsel parents to keep their children away from railway tracks.
The RPF team, led by Principal Chief Security Commissioner Raja Ram, has devised phase-wise counselling plan in the identified areas. In the first phase, there will be extensive counselling and the children/youth will be dissuaded from engaging in stone-pelting. A month-long awareness drive will be conducted by RPF to make aware the public, especially those residing near the railway tracks, through nukkad natak (street plays), distributing brochures and pamphlets. RPF will also sensitise children about the dangers of stone-pelting on running trains and how risky it would be for passengers.
The ECR suggested the general public to use the toll-free security helpline number 182 to report such incidents.
As per the available records, 10 such incidents occurred in 2018—six in Bhubaneswar, two in Cuttack and two in Sambalpur Division. In 2019, 18 cases were filed until August. These include four cases in Jajpur-Keonjhar Road, three each in Bhubaneswar and Visakhapatnam and one each at Nergundi, Motari, Rambha, Solari, Balugaon, Ichhapuram, Koraput and Angul. Two juveniles were also arrested for stone-pelting this year.
