Operation Blustar anniversary: Glaring security concerns at Ludhiana Railway Station come to the fore
A day after police commissioner Kaustubh Sharma held a meeting with Government Railway Police (GRP) and other senior police officials amid the ongoing anniversary week of Operation Bluestar and concerns over the rail roko called by banned outfit Sikhs for Justice (SFJ) on June 3 (Friday), a visit to the Ludhiana Railway Station on Thursday brought glaring security concerns to the fore
A day after police commissioner Kaustubh Sharma held a meeting with Government Railway Police (GRP) and other senior police officials amid the ongoing anniversary week of Operation Bluestar and concerns over the rail roko called by banned outfit Sikhs for Justice (SFJ) on June 3 (Friday), a visit to the Ludhiana Railway Station on Thursday brought glaring security concerns to the fore.
No security staff has been deployed at the parking lot outside the exit gate towards Civil Lines and visitors were seen keeping their vehicles there without any checking. A senior railway official said that its contract is yet to be renewed.
Sharma, who also visited the station at around 7:30 am to check security provisions, said that steps will be taken to improve the situation at this parking lot.
The lone baggage scanner at the station outside platform number 1 is lying defunct.
The security staff, on seeing shutterbugs, started checking the luggage of passengers, but many people were captured entering the station without being frisked.
The staff there said that the machine stopped working due to overheating.
The door frame metal detector (DFMD) at gate number one was also found non-operational. Pertinently, the Railway Protection Force had installed two DFMDs on the foot overbridge at the station last year, after the bomb blast at the Ludhiana court complex.
But, they were removed after the Railway Protection Special Force staff, which used to man the scanners, were sent for assembly election duties to Uttar Pradesh earlier this year. Those scanners were never installed again.
However, Jaskaran Singh, inspector, GRP, said that the defunct DFMD at gate number 1 was replaced this afternoon.
A day after a joint team of GRP and Railway Protection Force met station director Abhinav Singla regarding a security input received from Multi Agency Centre, Delhi, the parking at the main entrance of the platforms was sealed and shifted away on Thursday.
“The parking here has been a major concern. The most difficult task is to convince the railway staff to not keep their vehicles in no parking area. They all want to park at the nearest possible location to the entry point, even though vehicles of four to five staffers have been stolen before,” a senior police officer said.
