Smoking in train might land you in jail; Railways plans severe penalty for smoking in trains

 

The railways is set get harsh on those found smoking in trains and is mulling severe penalties, even arrest, for damaging public property after an initial probe in the recent fire in a coach of the Shatabdi Express, a senior official said on Saturday.

Officials privy to the probe said that cigarette and bidi stubs which were thrown in the dustbin caught fire with the help of soiled tissue papers and led to the fire incident in S5 coach of the New Delhi-Dehradun Shatabdi Special train.

The officials further said that the fast moving Shatabdi train may have further aided the inflammation. The fire incident had occured on March 13 near Raiwala in Uttarakhand.

At present, smoking cigarettes or bidi on the train is an offence under Section 167 of the Railways Act however the amount of penalty charged for the offence is just ₹100 which does not act as a strong deterrent against smoking.

Recently in a meeting of the Railway Board members and general managers of zones, Union Railway Minister Piyush Goyal asked officials to take proactive steps to raise awareness about the offence and ensure that other passengers do not suffer because of wrongdoings of a few people.

"The railways will crackdown on smoking in trains. The fire most likely started in one of the toilets and initial investigations revealed that the fire was in all probability caused by simmering cigarettes/ beedi thrown in the dustbin. The continuous air flow in a fast moving train would have fanned it. We are contemplating severe penalties. In some cases, even arrests can be made for causing damage to public railway property and risking the lives of others to deter irresponsible and errant persons," a senior officer said.

The officer said that the department is considering hiking fine substantially and will also bring provisions of arrest for harming public property. He said that the fire was so damaging that the interior of the toilet was completely charred and the floor was cracked. Officers said that a passenger has also provided a written statement to the four- member probe team stating that the smoke detector in coach went off when the fire started.

Source: financialexpress.com, india.com

Written by Siddhant Sharma