Title - Improved policing on trains, stations must

GUWAHATI  – Improved policing on trains and rail stations is crucial if movement of illegal weapons and ammunition inside the North East, as well as to other parts of the country has to be curbed.From time to time, the police have recovered illegal firearms from people travelling in trains. Abandoned weapons and materials used in explosive devices have also been recovered by them from trains and rail stations.In recent times, seizures from the region have indicated the use of the country’s international borders to bring in an array of sophisticated weapons. There is a belief that substantial consignments of weapons and ammunition, including small arms are transported on trains, which operate under low monitoring compared to road transport where consignment details are more specific, and road check points are more frequent.Worryingly for the police and intelligence units, some of the trains, unlike public buses or trains halt in stations in the dead of night, providing cover for criminals to board or disembark with their load of contraband.Personnel on the frontline, entrusted with policing trains and rail stations are blunt in stating that while the number and frequency of trains to and from Assam has increased manifold, the number of personnel on the beat has not increased in proportion.“The number of people, travelling by trains and their presence in stations has shot up in the last five to ten years…but our manpower has not grown to tackle this changed situation,” a security personnel stated. He added that most of the personnel checking people and accompanying luggage are working under great stress.Security experts agree that with inadequate security screening onboard trains it is all the more important that screening of passengers and cargo are strengthened in all rail stations. Securing the station’s entry points would deter criminals with contraband from boarding trains to a considerable extent. It has also been said that cargo booked on trains also need to come under a better screening and monitoring mechanism which involves detailed and verifiable records of the sender as well as the receiver of any consignment.