Udupi- a very well known place in the state of Karnataka; because of the magnificent 'Krishna Mandhir; (Lord Krishna Temple)situated a fair distance away from the railway station. Udupi station is one of the busiest around the area, and have people in and around making trips on a daily basis and usually gets packed on the weekends, as students visit family and go on field trips out of the state. Manipal which is located just a few kilometres away from Udupi is a university oriented area and accommodates more than 100 thousand students, faculty and localites.
The Udupi railway Station is constantly busy during the morning and evening hours.
As me and a couple of MIC students covered the issue of security throughout Udupi station, I learned that it lacks safety to a very large extent. While the three of us just took a look around the station's platform, we failed to see any police or security figure anywhere. Then a sign board read " police help" which points to a cabin with absolutely nobody there!
Sarika Shetty, the train master of Udupi Station enlightens us with the poor security conditions on the station's platform. "There are about four to five staff members on duty, who are not equipped or armed, there are no metal detectors and no camera systems set- up", she added. " There should certainly be more measures for security on the station",she continued sounding helpless. A colleague of Mrs. Shetty included, " I do not feel safe in this station, especially at night".She narrated a recent incident, " While Mrs. Shetty and myself were sitting in the cabin, a drunk man forcefully made his way in and asked us inappropriate questions, I was afraid something bad might happen, so I called the security, who were extremely late to arrive." They also said that many complaints have been made, but no action has been taken. Even the police do not cooperate with the railway safety, there is no ambulance or a fire engine in case of emergency. In case of a fire, there are only 2 fire extinguishers available at the station, which is not acceptable.
We learned that there is only one guard on duty for the night trains, which is risky, cause he is not equipped and has no back- up if anything terrible happens. Subramanya, a man working at the tea stall said, " One guard is not enough for such a long train and sometimes there are two trains on the platform. He continued to say, "There should be some entrance security and security cameras to catch the people who cause trouble."
Not very long ago, Delhi experienced a bomb blast at the Taj Hotel, apparently the explosives assembled were shockingly transported from Manipal, it was so easily carried out without suspicion. According to the Train Master, this year- the security is neglected even more.
We caught the attention of a passenger, a man who had just dropped his son off to college in Manipal University B- Tech, being an army officer Mr. Mahesh Chandraja was shaken and totally disgusted by the security of the Udupi Station. He said " Since students use the rail most often to travel to the nearest airport in Mangalore, there should be more safety precautions taken. It is a necessity!" He went on to say " Our country is currently in a desperate state and now would be the best time to take proper safety measures"
Auto drivers were also affected by the poor security systems. they narrated a few incidents that occurred in the station, one of which shocked me the most. A man critically ill passed out on the platform, no station officials,nor police took any kind of responsibility and ignored it, it were the drivers that noticed and made calls to emergency services which were awfully late because of bad roads too. They also added, " We would not even know if someone entered the rickshaw with a bomb or a weapon because we cannot question our passengers, that is why we need security or just PRAYERS!
There are no police , no security at the entrance, no baggage checking, no metal detectors and no cameras. Strict action must be taken as soon as possible as it is said " Better safe than sorry!"
IGNORANCE HURTS BUT NEGLIGENCE KILLS!
