Metro gatecrashers to face humiliation with fine

Acting smart and pushing your way into a woman's coach can cost you much more than just a fine.

Acting smart and pushing your way into a woman's coach can cost you much more than just a fine.

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If caught, you could be paraded in front of everybody, right up to the station controller's room.

Intensifying their on-the-move drive, the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) has constituted 10 special teams —choosing from among four lady sub-inspectors, 16 female constables and 10 male constables—to keep an eye on men travelling in women's coaches. Each team consists of two women and a male constable. More such teams are planned.

Some of the stations where this problem is grave includes Welcome, Shastri Park and Shahdara stations in line 1 (Dilshad Garden to Rithala), Jangpura and Lajpat Nagar in line 6 (Central Secretariat to Badarpur) and INA and Jor Bagh stations in line 2 (Gurgaon to Jahangirpuri).

"This drive is yielding positive results. In the last three months, we have caught and fined as many as 4,000 men," said Udayan Banerjee, DIG (Delhi Metro) CISF.

The "Catch-the-Romeo operation" starts at 6.30 am and continues till the service is over. The only exception is the evening peak hours when all the trains on all the lines are overcrowded. "Most of the violators are caught between 7pm and 10pm on working days," said an officer adding, "These men are mostly in groups and fall in the 25-35 age group."

The men caught are taken in full view of other commuters to the station controller's room and then slapped a penalty of Rs. 250.

"This causes huge embarrassment to them," he said.

Initially, the CISF sent out all-women teams but following some incidents of misbehaviour by male commuters, now all teams have at least one male constable.