Trivandrum: Southern Railway is operating, on an average, 1,305 Mail/Express trains daily, apart from 652 EMU/MEMU Suburban trains daily by carrying 2.41 million people focusing on Safety, Security, Punctuality & Cleanliness. Though the Indian Railways is striving hard to maintain the punctuality of trains being operated under its control, the menace of Alarm Chain Pulling (ACP) is adjudged as one of the major factors for the delayed operation of trains at National level.
Since train has to run on the same track one after another, with a safer distance and controlled by auto signalling and monitoring system, any unusual stoppage of a train will not only affect the punctuality of that particular train, but also of all the trains running behind it and consuming the valuable time of Rail passengers proceeding for various reasons which will go haywire. An analysis revealed that the passengers normally pull Alarm Chain for the reasons that, co-passenger could not board/alight, medical attention, missing of belongings, passenger got down to purchase eatables/water in enroute did not board the train, no water in coach, light/fan not working, passenger overslept, etc.
Pulling of Alarm Chain, without reasonable and sufficient cause, attracts legal action under Section 141 of Indian Railways Act, 1989, which awards a punishment of imprisonment which may extend to one year or fine which may extend to Rs.1,000/- or with both.
An analysis of instances of ACP revealed that, in most of the occasions, the Alarm Chain was pulled by the passengers for trivial reasons. During the year 2019 (up to May), 775 cases were registered for unauthorized Alarm Chain Pulling and in this, 774 persons have been arrested and prosecuted with a fine amount of Rs.3,72,450/- from them.
Railways appeals to the travelling public to avoid alarm chain pulling to maintain the punctuality of trains. In case of any emergency, the public is advised to contact Railway RPF Helpline 182. In order to ensure the punctuality of trains and to control the unauthorized pulling of Alarm Chain, RPF escorts are provided on the affected sections.
Kerala Rail News