The Government Railway Police’s (GRP) helpline number — 9833331111 — in 2015 saw the highest number of calls ever made by Mumbaikars about suspicious persons or abandoned bags. Commuters have been told to call the helpline if they are facing a threat to their personal safety.
The data, said officials, shows that people are becoming more aware after the Railway and the GRP had launched a poster campaign in which commuters were asked to pay attention to bags that are left behind and seem suspicious.
An GRP officer, requesting anonymity, said that the reason behind most of the leftover luggage is
forgetfulness on the part of commuters; but the calls need to keep coming in. “We got around 127 calls from commuters on our helpline where the commuter was concerned about an abandoned bag. Similarly, we saw around 825 calls about suspicious persons being reported by commuters; usually it was because a man was seen lingering around the station for too long or there was a situation where the person seemed to be very volatile,” said the official.
According to the statistics, 1,200 women have called for various reasons but harassment by hawkers seems to be at the top of the list. “Women tend to call, complaining about hawkers because they tend to get into fights with them since they want to move around the compartment a lot, which is extremely inconvenient during peak hours,” said the official.
Around 192 commuters have also called the helpline to express their grievances against the western or central railway even though the help line is primarily meant for safety and security of the passengers.
“We have told the concerned railway about these calls and shared the details, but that is the extent of what we can do in these matters,” said the official.
