Chapter 16 - Indian Railway Protection Force (RPF) | A Bouquet of Services by IPS Lohit Matani and IPS Vishal - UPSC PDF Download

Indian Railway Protection Force (RPF)

Contributor: Mr. Raman Singh, IRPF 2014 Batch

16.1 Cadre Structure and Overview

After this, it was decided that there should be an integrated well organized force on the model of Police with adequate supervisory staff specially trained to meet the particular aspects of crime that were relevant to railway property and to work in close coordination with State Police. On 29th August, 1957, Railway Protection Force Act was passed and RPF was created. In 1962, during Chinese Aggression, “Special Emergency Force” (now known as Railway Protection Special Force) was raised from RPF to protect trains in border districts. Since 1966, RPF has been given legal powers for better protection of Railway property by enacting Railway Property (Unlawful Possession) Act.

RPF is headed by the Director General (RPF). Direct recruited Group “A” officers are allocated to various zones in the Indian Railways. Functions in the RPF are divided into the executive branch and the prosecution branch. The executive branch is sub-divided into static, mobile, crime, special and stores wings.

The static wing, consisting of RPF posts, is responsible for the security of railway property, passengers and crimes against it. The mobile wing generally escorts passenger and goods trains and assists the static wing. The crime wing is a specialized squad for collection and collation of crime intelligence and it also enquires into difficult cases. They are assisted by the dogs’ squad. The special wing collects intelligence affecting the security and functioning of the railways. The stores wing caters to the requirement of the force for uniform, accoutrements, arms, ammunition, equipment and other store items.

16.2 Roles and Responsibilities

Group “A” officers of RPF are responsible for overall protection and safeguarding of railway property, passenger and passenger area associated with the Indian Railways. Railway property includes, apart from station buildings, trains and all industrial establishments under the railways. Their functions broadly include:

1. Officers are responsible for providing protection and security to railway property, passenger and passenger area.
2. They advise the railway administration on all matters connected with railway security, and they handle all references concerning police including Government Railway Police (GRP) received from State Governments or other Ministries of the Central Government.
3. Officers guide and lead the force for the protection of railways and in combating crimes against it. For this they register crimes, do inquiry and investigation of various railway related offences, and prosecute criminals under various sections/ provisions of Railway Property (Unlawful Possession) Act, 1966, RPF Act, Railway Act, 1989, etc.
4. Officers are involved in planning for the security of the system itself. This includes identification of vulnerable railway stations, vulnerable railway stretches, deployment of adequate and skilled manpower and maintaining a scheme of integrated security system including latest security technologies and in coordination with various security agencies.
5. Officers compile a monthly review of the performance of the force in regard to its statutory duties and functions. This ensures better monitoring and performance by the force. This also improves the accountability of their force towards the Government of India and railway passengers.
6. Officers exercise executive and administrative functions for the RPF personnel, their work include distribution, transfer, postings, career growth, performance appraisal, grievance redressal, and deployment of force in various contingencies like a railway accident, attack on railways, any railway strike, and so on.
7. Group A officers are solely responsible for the Human Resource Development and Management functions for the RPF personnel, including their skill up gradation and training.
8. Officers are required to take suitable action to enable optimum utilization of the force through a transparent, rational and strategic deployment, transfer and posting policy and practice.
9. They also ensure that their manpower remains physically, mentally fit and up to date through proper training at initial level supported by in service courses as well as advanced courses.
10. They also take suitable disciplinary action against members of the Force found involved in indiscipline or undesirable activities. On the other hand, they motivate their force by appreciating and giving recognition and rewards for their good work.

16.3 Normal Growth Profile

We will be discussing about the various career opportunities a Group “A”RPF Officer has in a separate topic. However, this topic only deals with various positions an Officer holds during his normal professional life. These positions are held when he/ she is working in his/ her main line departments.

16.4 Recruitment

At present, there are three modes of recruitment to Group “A” officers in RPF:

1. Through Civil Services Examination conducted by UPSC every year (50% of total Group “A” cadre).
2. Through promotion of Inspectors of RPF in terms of RPF Recruitment Rules of 1994 (40% of total Group “A” cadre).
3. Recruitment of ex-army officers to 10% posts.

16.5 Training

The training is conducted at various national academies including Jagjivan Ram RPF Academy, Lucknow.

16.6 Variety of Opportunities for Group A RPF Officers

Apart from the cadre posts, Group A officers of RPF also serve in the following organizations:

1.BCAS: Bureau of Civil Aviation Security.

16.7 Perks, Privileges and Advantages for Group A RPF Officers

Group A RPF officers enjoy the following advantages:

1. As the cadre of RPF is very small, officers have good chances of promotion and deputation in different organizations. With the growing infrastructure of metro rails, they are having a unique advantage for serving in the security of metro rails.
2. The officers of RPF travel in the vast stretches of the country. Thus they have a high interaction with the members of all the other civil services. This enhances their network and importance among other service officers.
3. They enjoy a unique advantage of enjoying the benefits of being a part of both, an armed force and a civil railway organization.
4. The directly recruited officers are generally not given any harsh posting (posting in difficult areas) while being posted at divisional level.
5. This service provides an opportunity to see the country while performing one’s duty. Each station or compartment is like a mini-India, where people from different States can be found and have to be looked after. This leads to extensive public interface and widens the horizon of the officers.
6. Officers of this service enjoy the prestige of wearing a uniform and representing themselves as the first line of response for any incidence in railways.
7. Unlike the State police, there is no political interference in the work of an RPF officer.
8. As Indian Railways is spread in the length and breadth of India, RPF provides an opportunity to work in different parts of India.
9. The work provides sufficient time to maintain a good work-life balance and build one’s personality.
10. The government is planning to make RPF as a federal railway police agency by giving it duties as a full-blooded police force from an armed security appendage of the railway ministry. It would replace the present three-tier security setup that involves RPF along with State run- GRP and district police. This move will enhance the importance and functioning of RPF.

16.8 Occupational Hazards

There are certain disadvantages of RPF. The first one is that the service is not as well organized as other services. It also has a different pay scale from other service. There is no security of tenure of RPF officers; the job is highly transferrable and unpredictable. These transfers can also sometimes happen in difficult areas. Officers also face challenges while coordinating with other departments like GRP and district police in matters of railway security; other departments often try to work in silos. Officers also face life threat while dealing with train dacoity, terrorist attacks on train or a rail accident. Their work jurisdiction is limited to the railways and they have limited powers related to sections of Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC).

16.9    Case Studies indicating the work life, challenges and ethical dilemmas faced by a Group “A” RPF Officer

16.9.1 Rail Roko Andolan

The work profile of Railway Protection Force (RFP) throws up various situations in which an officer has to deal with law and order issues in the railways. One such situation was faced by an able officer Mr. Pushparaj Singh. Pushparaj was posted as Asst. Security Commissioner of Lumding Division in Nagaland. Pushparaj was known for his integrity and acumen in dealing with public.

Once there was a sewage problem in the city of Dimapur (it falls in Lumding division). Due to this sewage problem, sewage water got accumulated in the city. The boundary of Dimapur railway station was stopping the water from freely flowing and thus helped in its accumulation. The people of the city got frustrated and demanded the boundary wall to be broken. They demanded the railway authorities to find a solution to this problem. Due to delay in finding a solution, they started rail roko andolan.

It was the duty of the municipal corporation to remove the accumulated water. However, they were shirking its duty and trying to blame the railway department for building boundary wall at a wrong place. This case presented a classic example when government departments work in silos and for their narrow self-interests. In this tussle between departments, RPF was facing the brunt of public as it is the most visible face of Indian Railways.

However, Pushparaj remained calm in this situation. He took an initiative to coordinate with different departments in solving this situation. He requested the Municipal Corporation to solve the sewage problem and divert the water in drains. He coordinated with the district police to provide adequate manpower in dealing with the large amount of public. He worked very hard and motivated his team to face the public. He promised the public that the problem will be solved in few days; when they did not agree to leave, he also used proportionate force to remove. He was successful in removing the public from railway tracks.

However, he came to know that various political interests were involved in this rail roko andolan. Sewage problem was only taken as an opportunity by the opposition party to stop rail services and create pressure on the government. Many members of the Municipal Corporation and railways were supporters of the opposition party and were supporting the rail roko andolan in a clandestine manner. This added to the complexity of the task. When the sewage problem did not get solved for some days, people again started strikes on railway tracks.

Q. How will Pushparaj come out of this problem? What kind of skills is required for inter-service coordination? What steps he should take in this situation?

16.9.2 Chain Pulling and Railway Theft: A Catch 22 Situation

Mayur Patil was posted as a new and young Asst. Security Commissioner of Mumbai Division. Being from a police background Mayur was very passionate in solving the issues of railway crimes. Right from his childhood he was fed up of the chain pulling in railways and railway theft. When he got his posting, he came to know that theft in railways in his division is a common phenomenon. Being a hot spot of economy and a place where lot of migration population travels, theft in Mumbai railways was rampant.

Mayur was determined to fight it. He made two teams for each train, and asked them to do regular patrolling. He trained his men to immediately locate a train coach where chain is pulled. He also directed them to quickly investigate the case and arrest the thief. In a period of one month, Mayur was successful in catching two gangs of thieves. He also recovered the lost material of many passengers and sent it back to their place of residence. He also caught many thieves red handed. Soon he became very famous among the people and his colleagues. People started praising him for maintaining safety in Indian Railways.

However, in some time things started changing. It was heard that the thieves have started paying a share to the subordinate officers. Due to this, the subordinate officers have become lenient to the thieves. Theft started resurfacing. Now, Mayur started inspecting the trains personally. However, his high handed behavior led to criticism from people. He used to keep a train stopped until he could investigate a case and locate the thieves. Frequent chain pulling and subsequent delay due to investigation attracted public approbation. Moreover, people who pulled chain for benign reasons felt harassed by the RPF behavior. The main problem was that the subordinate staff was angry with the directive and authoritative behavior of Mayur. Thus, they stopped supporting his cause and started reporting to the Deputy Security Commissioner (DSC) who was not a person with impeccable integrity. 

Q. How should Mayur behave with his subordinates in order to fight the menace of train theft? What measures would you use to fight train theft?  Answer according to the functions of an RPF officer.

16.9.3 Child Trafficking Though Indian Railways

Indian Railways is the biggest medium of child trafficking and kidnapping in India. Children are trafficked from Bangladesh to the bordering districts of West Bengal. They are then transported to different parts of India where they are abused in different manners. The manner of abuse includes child labor and sexual abuse. To fight this menace, Government of India has also started “Operation Muskaan’ in which various departments have to coordinate among themselves to detect missing children and provide them rehabilitation.

RPF has a major responsibility of preventing child trafficking. Mr. Sayak Das was posted as Divisional Security Commissioner of Kolkata division. Before his posting the rate of child trafficking increased by leaps and bounds. The police from Bangladesh was also worried about the lost children from their country. They also showed great displeasure at the lack of inactivity showed by Kolkata police in dealing with this problem. Sayak, who was a local of Kolkata, understood the depth of this social evil. He wanted to eradicate it completely.

He deployed personnel in plain clothes in all the trains to collect intelligence about trafficked children. In one case, a complaint was received about a missing child. He immediately asked his men to become active in all the train going out from Kolkata and monitor the behavior of people in the train. After continuous monitoring, they were able to locate a person whose whereabouts were not clear. On inquiry he told that the child, a girl of 10 years, is sleeping on the upper birth. They rescued the girl and sent her to a child care home and informed her relatives. On further interrogation, he told that he is a middleman who transfers girl child from Bangladesh to Mumbai via Kolkata. He further said these girls are pushed into prostitution or are forced to marry an old man. He said that he received Rs 50,000 for each child and Rs 50,000 are paid to the parents of the child.

This clearly shows the connivance of parents in child trafficking. Sayak tried his level best in arresting all the members of the gang. He was successful till that length; however, he found that there are many such gangs operating. The basis of their operation was poverty and willingness of parents in selling their children. Over and above this, the political and diplomatic class did not have the will to deal with this menace. Being an RPF officer, he had limited powers to deal with this social problem.

Q. What should Sayak do in this situation? What strategy should he adopt to eradicate this problem from its root?