Fortunately or otherwise, I have been traveling in Chennai-Vijayawada- Warangal section of Indian Railways since 1991. All along there have been many changes, but one thing that never changed is the constant threat of theft in running trains. Even though I haven’t lost anything, I have been a witness to many such scenes where passengers lost plenty. The most recent one was in 2621 Chennai-New Delhi Tamil Nadu Express which left Chennai on 22/03/2009. A passenger, according FIR lost nearly 45 sovereigns of gold, and cash.
It can’t be denied that the onus of safeguarding the luggage lies with one’s self, but a passenger can’t be expected to guard it all the way through the entire journey- which in any case is believed to be safe under lock, chain, key etc.
This is not an one off incident to be neglected or ignored. This is continuing occurrence in all trains crossing that section, despite the safety surcharge- which is paid by each passenger, in train- amenity forces and other tall claims made by the Railways. Also it is not very difficult to conclude that these things can’t go on happening like this without the blessings of concerned authorities.
Most of the cases are reported in other states (other than that in which the theft occur), which is understandable because nothing much can be done in a moving train. This makes the follow up much more difficult. Such scenario is working nicely to the advantage of those culprits. How many losers actually report the loss, how many among them care to follow up and how many following up losers get something back? In my experience I haven’t come across any one who got back some valuable lost like this.
On the other hand, according to a railway official with whom I happen to converse, you can afford to lose anything if you are a high ranked Govt official, high profile politician or someone equivalent. The official recollected some occasions, when lost items were traced, and dispatched to the destination by air, to join the owner when he reached there.
But that is not too surprising, because in India, Safety and security is not for the common man. It is only for those ‘privileged’ people
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Dear Sri,
ReplyDeleteNice to see your blog. I am very happy that you have started blogging. Keep rocking !!! Good Luck.
Dear Narayana,
ReplyDeleteA Good start. And that with a subject so dear to ur heart, travel.
One way to counter such thefts is maybe the railways can provide good strong lockers. Like the space under the seats which are vacant can be used for this purpose. And the occupants can use this space to keep their valuable luggage (the permitted limit) inside and lock it.
of course it is not Fool proof, but maybe we can make it that much difficult for the burglars.
Hi Sri,
ReplyDeleteGood Job and keep doing it, for it would benefit a good lot of people reading it in one way or other.
Regarding the subject under discussion, I would like to appreciate the idea posted by Niranjan to provide a locker under the seat, but again the same would be locked by a pad lock or so, which in other case is already done by all using chains. The question is how safe is our locked lugguage or unlocked lugguage?? Unlocked lugguage in any case is not safe at all and locked lugguage is also nowadays not safe. So we can sum up like this....Thirudane parthu thirunthavittal thirutai ozhika mudiyathu!!!! All depends on our fate...if it is to be lost, it will be lost and nobody can help about..remember incidents of chain snatching etc...The other interesting aspect is...these all are done with the connivance of the officials at large.