Railway Stations Now a “No-Sleep Zone”
In an effort to reduce crime in railway stations, the Central Railway in Mumbai has decided to make declare platforms a “No-Sleep Zone”.
The Central Railway in Mumbai has come up with a new rule. The Central Railway has declared all that no one will be allowed to sleep on the platforms from now on. They have passed this new rule to control crime and reduce the crowd in all the railway stations. If anyone is found to be asleep at the station, the will not be fined. If they have a ticket, they will be sent to a waiting room and if they do not have a ticket they will be sent out of the station.
A CR officer said that, Platforms are not for people to sleep. The new rule will help passengers move around easily. The railway staff have been told to be strict and wake anyone who is found to be asleep. The officials say that they passed the because crimes in railway stations were increasing a lot. In June this year, 35 cases of theft were recorded at Kalyan station, 26 at Dadar, 24 at Thane, 19 at Lokmanya Tilak Terminus and 14 at Panvel. More than 80% of these thefts were in the night. This shows that most of the victims were those who had gone to sleep. On 29th March a homeless woman’s two-month-old son was kidnapped from CSMT while she was asleep.
Many times people pretend to be asleep next to sleeping passengers but then runaway with their belongings. The rule started 6 months back but there have been no strong results. However now many NGOs are worried about homeless people. During the rains those who do not have homes, take shelter in railway stations during the rains. Mahesh Kamble from Jamsetji Tata School of Disaster Studies said that, Mumbai has many people who are homeless. They live in railway stations as there aren’t enough shelters in the city. Authorities can simply throw them out.
