Published On : Wed, Nov 6th, 2013

Safety of passengers in grave danger as baggage scanner goes dead at Railway Station

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RPF, GRPF personnel found helpless in frisking all passengers and their luggage during Diwali rush

Railway-Scanner

File Pic

Nagpur News.

Safety and security of the passengers had been and still being held to ransom as the baggage scanner on the East Entry Gate of Nagpur Railway Station has gone dead since past four days. The Baggage Scanner turned idle fromSunday and till today has not been made operational thus putting passengers and the Railway Station as well to grave hazard. Earlier, the Baggage Scanner at the West Entry Gate had gone defunct till Saturday. And looking to Diwali rush, any untoward incident could prove disastrous unless the corrective steps are taken to make the Baggage Scanner properly working.

ABUZZ:

The Nagpur Railway Station is always abuzz with large number of passengers since it is at the centre of the country and trains arrive and depart from the all the four directions. Moreover, the terrorists had threatened to cause sabotage in a big way forcing authorities to station BDDS and Sniffer Dog Squads for 24 hours at the Railway Station. The concerned authorities, after considering the sensitive nature of situation at the Nagpur Railway Station, installed baggage scanners at the Entry Gates of West and East sides to detect any inflammatory stuff (petrol, kerosene) or explosives in the luggage of the passengers. However, the machines develop snags on many days of the month forcing the RPF personnel to frisk passengers bodily and their baggage with the help of metal detectors. However, during the massive rush of passengers (Diwali), the efforts of the RPF fall well short and hundreds of passengers and their luggage go without proper checking and thus inviting a potential danger of sabotage.

CHAOS:

The baggage scanner at the West Entry Gate went stagnant on Saturday but was repaired the next day. However , the same day (Sunday), baggage scanner at East Entry Gate went dead and still dead creating a chaos as the RPF and GRPF personnel were found helpless in frisking all the passengers and their luggage. Moreover, Nagpur Railway Station could become an “ideal” target because of its proximity from all four sides. And the dead baggage scanner is a bad omen.

The RPF and GRPF have been facing staff crunch and the scanners going handicapped frequently point out or give an enough hint of any untoward incident unless the authorities initiate corrective measures.