Abhijith N Kolpe
Daijiworld Media Network – Mangaluru
Mangaluru, Feb 15: The Indian Railways will provide information on rescued children through ‘Track Child Portal– 3.0’. The portal was specially launched for tracking the children rescued by the Railway Protection Force (RPF).
The RPF will now upload the details of children rescued in the Track Child Portal which is available on the official website https://indianrailways.gov.in/. The family members of the missing children or public can access the data available in the portal to locate the missing and rescued children.
The RPF have been rescuing missing children found at railway stations, trains and other railway premises. The ‘Track Child Portal – 3.0’ is an initiative undertaken by the Indian Railways which will help to trace missing children.
In addition, the portal also allows public to provide information about lost children; check the status of missing complaints and register online for child care institutions.
Inspector RPF Akbar Ali has urged public to make the best use of the web portal to trace the missing children rescued at railway stations and from trains. The general public can access the web portal to trace missing children and also feed the information about the missing children.
Public needs to be alert over unauthorized IRCTC booking
Akbar Ali says, “The public needs to be alert on unauthorized IRCTC ticket booking. We can see many agents misusing personal IDs to book train tickets through IRCTC website.
“The IRCTC had issued new rules for booking tickets for genuine travellers where two tickets are allowed to be booked per user ID in a day and maximum of six tickets per month. Unfortunately, personal IDs are being misused. The unauthorized agents create multiple IDs to book tickets through IRCTC website. It is an offence under section 143 Railway Act 1989 with imprisonment up to three years and fine up to Rs 10,000.
“It is not a crime to book a ticket from own IDs as it allows to book 12 tickets in a month from a single ID. But it is an offence to create multiple IDs to book tickets illegally through IRCTC website. Bulk booking of tickets using same IDs is also an offence,” he says.
RPF of Mangaluru Central - Saviour of missing children
The RPF of Mangalore Central, under the leadership of Akbar Ali, inspector, Mangaluru and other officers and staff have saved 20 minor boys/girls who were secured from the train/station and handed over to their parents or police through Mangaluru Child Welfare Committee (CWC) during the year 2022-23. In total, 15 minors were secured in the year 2022 and 5 minors in the month of January-2023. There were 5 girls out of the 20 rescued. The RPF Palakkad division has secured a total of 272 minors and handed them over to safe hands during the last year through this service.
Akbar Ali says, “Whenever a child is rescued, we will inform it to the childline and hand over the child to its parents through Child Welfare Committee. Out of 20 children rescued in Mangaluru, none were found conflicting with laws. Most of the children ran away from home without the parents’ knowledge due to several reasons such as family issues, scolding from parents, love affairs and others.”
RPF and Government Railway Police (GRP)
There are two types of policing in railways, RPF and Government Railway Police (GRP). The RPF exclusively deals with stealing or damaging railway property and safety of passengers, while the GRP deals with maintaining law and order.
In the year 2022, three cases have been filed regarding railway property and one in 2023. In 2022, five accused including a lady were arrested for stealing copper cables worth Rs 8 lac where 20 copper cable rolls which is used for railway electrification were stolen from Ullal.
Among the five accused, three hailed from Tamil Nadu who were living in Mangaluru. The main accused arrested in the case faces more than 25 cases in Mangaluru.