Unauthorised alarm chain pulling delays 86 trains on Eastern Railway in May

Kolkata, June 18 (IANS) Eastern Railway (ER) has revealed details of the causes behind Alarm Chain Pulling (ACP) incidents that delayed 86 trains across its four divisions in May. As many as 58 people were arrested for pulling alarm chains without justifiable cause during the month.

The Asansol and Howrah divisions were the worst affected, followed by Malda and Sealdah.

Investigations by the Railway Protection Force (RPF) revealed that passengers pulled the emergency chain for highly trivial reasons, effectively turning express trains into personal stop-on-demand services.

According to details in RPF logs, four passengers each in the Asansol and Malda divisions pulled the emergency chain simply because the train was passing close to their native villages, completely disregarding scheduled station stops and safety concerns related to unscheduled halts.

Three passengers in the Asansol division and two in the Howrah division missed their destination stations after falling asleep. On realising, upon waking up, that they had been carried beyond their destination due to no fault of the Railways, they pulled the alarm chain and disembarked.

In 10 cases, passengers claimed that the ACP was accidental. Eight of these incidents occurred in the Asansol division and two in the Sealdah division.

There were also two cases in the Asansol division in which passengers hung heavy luggage from the chains, resulting in accidental activation.

In another two cases in the Asansol division, people who had boarded the train to see off relatives were unable to get off before it started moving.

There were also four passengers in the Asansol division and two in the Howrah division who resorted to ACP after boarding the wrong train.

Ten passengers across the Asansol, Howrah and Malda divisions pulled the chain after they, or their relatives, failed to board or deboard the trains.

A passenger in the Sealdah division admitted to pulling the chain after accidentally dropping a mobile phone out of the window.

There were also two cases in the Howrah and Malda divisions where passengers resorted to ACP after leaving their luggage behind on the platform.

While six cases involving unidentified persons remain under investigation, an incident involving military personnel using ACP during movement was also recorded.

As a result of these incidents, average detention times reached up to 13 minutes in the Asansol division, 14 minutes in the Howrah division and a staggering 17 minutes per incident in sections of the Malda and Sealdah divisions, ER said.

To curb the misuse, ER launched an aggressive crackdown throughout May, leading to the registration of 72 criminal cases and the arrest of 58 individuals.

Alarm Chain Pulling is strictly governed by Section 141 of the Railways Act, 1989. The facility is provided exclusively for genuine emergencies, and unauthorised use is a serious criminal offence.

Anyone found guilty of unauthorised ACP can face rigorous penalties, including imprisonment for a term of up to one year, a fine of up to Rs 1,000, or both.

RPF teams have intensified surveillance inside coaches to catch offenders red-handed and prevent unnecessary delays, officials said.

“Unauthorised chain pulling will have to stop to ensure punctuality,” Shibram Majhi, CPRO, ER, said.

–IANS

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