NEW DELHI, Dec 4: Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has said that the Railway Protection Force (RPF) took only 12 minutes to address a woman passenger’s complaint of nuisance by three drunk youths in a train.
Earlier, the RPF had issued a statement according to which it took about 45 minutes to address the complaint.
“The Railway Protection Force took action within 12 minutes of receiving the complaint from the passenger,” Vaishnaw said recently while interacting with reporters.
The issue relates to a video uploaded by the passenger, Gayatri Bishnoi, who is also the Rajasthan AAP women wing president, on her ‘X’ account at 2:14 am on November 20 in which she alleged that when she was travelling from Jaipur to Sri Ganganagar in a 2AC coach, three persons were consuming alcohol, abusing each other and passengers, and creating nuisance.
There was no RPF personnel in the Jhalawar City-Shri Ganganagar Express, she alleged.
She had also alleged in the video that when she lodged a complaint with the RPF with the help of travelling ticket examiners (TTEs), the RPF personnel came to arrest them about an hour later.
The RPF had responded to her allegations and said that it received her complaint at 12:17 am and addressed it at 1:02 am. It also admitted that there was no jawan in the train as 5,000 personnel were diverted from their regular job to election duties.
“The complaint was received through ‘Rail Madad’ at 00:17 hrs and RPF Kota Division immediately contacted the complainant Ms Bishnoi at 00:26 hrs, following which the complaint was swiftly forwarded to Jodhpur Division at 00:30 hrs,” The RPF had said in a statement.
“Despite the train departing Makrana Jn station at 00:28 hrs, Ms. Bishnoi was promptly attended to upon the train’s arrival at Degana at 01:02 hrs. The three offenders were deboarded at Degana Station by RPF followed by the initiation prosecution against them under the provisions of Railway Act,” it added.
The RPF had accused Bishnoi of uploading the video after it took action against the offenders. On this, Bishnoi had said that she uploaded the video to create awareness about how late action on the part of the RPF put many women passengers travelling in trains in a vulnerable and awkward situation.
However, weeks after the incident, Vaishnaw responded to a query from a media person and said that the action was swift and within 12 minutes.
When contacted, Bishnoi said, “I am glad that Railway Minister Shri Ashwini Vaishnaw ji has taken note of the incident. However, he has been misled by his officials and made to believe that the action was taken within 12 minutes. That’s the whole problem. RPF took almost 45 minutes to address it, which is unfortunate.” (PTI)
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