Railways penalises 514 passengers for illegal alarm chain pulling

Patna: The East Central Railway (ECR) has penalised 514 people for illegally stopping trains by pulling the alarm chain under Section 141 of the Railway Act. The drive was carried out under ‘Samay Palan’ between March 1 and 15 across the five divisions under the ECR’s jurisdiction.ECR chief public relations officer (CPRO) Saraswati Chandra said the highest number of offenders—230—were booked in the Danapur division, followed by Samastipur (101), DDU (73), Sonepur (66) and Dhanbad (44). A total fine of Rs1.46 lakh was realised during the drive, he added.In a parallel crackdown under ‘Mahila Suraksha’, under Section 162 of the Railway Act related to unauthorised travel in reserved women’s coaches, as many as 1,570 people were apprehended. The railways collected Rs3.61 lakh as fines in these cases.Division-wise figures showed Danapur again recorded the highest number of violations with 840 offenders, followed by DDU (278), Dhanbad (205), Samastipur (130) and Sonepur (117), the CPRO said. He added that the intensive drive aimed to ensure passenger safety, prevent unnecessary train delays and maintain discipline in reserved coaches. The railways urged passengers to refrain from the misuse of alarm chain pulling (ACP), which often disrupts train operations and causes inconvenience to passengers travelling on long-distance mail and express trains.