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Railway Protection Force
The Railway Protection Force was formed to protect the Indian Railways and its passengers. Indian Railways is a vast network that covers nook and corner of the country. From coastlines to the mountains and from deserts to the populous valleys, no part of this huge and diverse country is left untouched by the Indian Railways. A vast majority of the people depend on the Railways as the primary mode of long and short distance transport. But along sometimes this leads to over dependence on the Railways which makes various locations vulnerable to unwanted incidents. Over the years the Railways have noticed both insurgent attacks and stray crimes such as train robberies in the trains. Due to their importance in maintaining communication and supplies, the trains are frequently targeted by terrorist and anti-social elements. At the same time, during long stretches through barren locations, the passengers become easy targets for criminals. Regular police force or other law enforcement agencies cannot control such events due to various practical problems. That is why a special task force was required and so the Railway Protection Force was formed by the government to take care of the security issues within the Railways. Right now the RPF boasts of a force as large as 65000.
The main purpose of the RPF is to ensure free movement of the Railways across its network by all means. This means it has to take care of the passenger trains as well as the goods carriers across the rail network and see that their movement is not blocked or restricted by any unwanted elements. Various miscreants may try to damage the railway tracks to derail the trains or on many occasions political protestors block the tracks to block trains as a means of drawing attention to their demands. RPF is expected to handle such situations and make sure that the trains move freely and on schedule.
The second intention of setting up the Railway Protection Force was to ensure protection of railway properties. The Indian Railways is responsible for a huge volume of public properties. Apart from the trains, engines and carriages, it owns real estate in terms of the railway stations and associated structures, railway tracks and bridges. All these properties have been built over decades with colossal expenditures. These properties are also easy targets for various elements looking to take on the establishment. From terrorists to political dissidents, everybody tries to demonstrate their ire on the public properties including those under the Railways. The RPF is expected to protect these properties from such elements.
Another important job for the RPF is to take care of the safety of the passenger. The passengers are the customers of the Railways and it is responsible for their safety. But stray incidents and crimes easily happen on the trains because it is practically not possible to take care of everyone in such a huge network. Still, the Railway Protection Force works as the first point of contact between the passengers and the establishment in case of any unwanted incident or crime and they try to solve the issues as soon as possible to ensure a safe journey for the passengers.
The RPF is one of the Central Armed Police Forces of India. The top brass of the force is drawn from the elite Indian Police Service. The head of the force is known as the Director General and there are divisional security commissioners for different divisions of the Indian Railways. While the area of its function is limited, it plays a major role in making train travel safer for millions of passengers every year.