Recently, the body of a mendicant with head injuries was discovered by a motorist at the Chintadripet MRTS Station. The incident puts the spotlight on two issues, again — uncontrolled access to MRTS stations and deserted spaces at these stations, most of which are eerily vast.
Following the incident, the police closed a gate leading to the covered parking area where the vagabond, believed to be in his 50s, was found dead. It’s not that the police have woken up to the dangers of uncontrolled access to MRTS stations.
In 2013, the Railway Protection Force (RPF) undertook an exercise to restrict access points at railway stations that had too many of them.
As part of this, some access points were blocked with brick and mortar.
However, despite reducing access points, due to limited staff, the police have difficulty monitoring the ones that are open.
The other issue is the vastness of the MRTS stations that enable certain things to elude notice.
According to A.T. Thirumurthy, the parking contractor at Chintadripet station, none of his staff knew about the incident. It had to be brought to their notice by an outsider — that is, a motorist.
“He saw the person lying near his car with blood stains, and he informed us, after which we alerted the police,” says Thirumurthy.
The mendicant had apparently been under the influence of alcohol, and in an inebriated condition, he had fallen down and hurt himself.
According to a police report, the body was lying hidden behind cars, for more than a day.
“We have only one personnel to guard a station; and our main focus is on the station’s platform,” says an RPF inspector.
At the Chintadripet station, there are people who park their vehicles at night and also for weeks on end.
The person who alerted the parking attendant about the beggar had apparently come to take his car after two weeks. “It is good this access gate is closed as we will never know if a person entering the parking area is taking this shorter route to get to the platform or doing so for some other purpose,” says Thirumurthy, adding that many were taking this access gate due to lack of sufficient illumination at other access points.