RPF and Medical Warriors of Western Rly excelled beyond their limits

Western Railway has the many feathers in its hat since its
inception on 5th November, 1951. In continuation to its progress journey, it
has once again been able to set new records by achieving best ever performances
in various fields during the concluded financial year 2019-20.

Despite the tough times amidst the 21-day Coronavirus lockdown, Western Railway continues to break all barriers in achieving & becoming the best of the best on the front of security, medical, personnel & accounts alongwith other departments of WR. Alok Kansal- General Manager of Western Rly has congratulated all concerned Principal Heads of Departments & their teams for their marvelous achievements despite several challenging situations.

According to a press release issued by WR CPRO Ravinder
Bhakar, this year has been an eventful one & full of achievements for
Western Rly especially security & medical departments are playing a major
role beyond their limits, in the fight with the terrific CORONA crisis.

● Health Care

It is worth mentioning that during the Coronavirus Pandemic
Lockdown, the Medical Dept. of Western Railway proactively came forward in
providing medical help, readying the hospitals to be equipped to face the scary
times of the COVID-19. Western Railway’s Jagjivan Ram Hospital turned into a
combat zone by providing 361-bed for isolation ward. The divisional railway
hospitals at Pratapnagar, Vadodara provided 50 beds, Sabarmati, Ahmedabad
provided 40 beds and DRH at Ratlam readied 60 beds for isolation wards.

Other than this, space has been made for doctors and
paramedical staff who are working continuously round the clock without heading
to their homes. These teams will be going home after a week for 14 days home
quarantine. At the same time, special beds are also being kept reserved for
hospital staff/healthcare workers in case they contract the infection while
giving care. Provision of air conditioning has been made at more wards where
feasible natural ventilation with large windows on opposite sides are available
in the rest of the wards.

All divisional hospitals are also equipped with quarantine
beds. The divisions have also conducted awareness activities such as widespread
publicity about Coronavirus, training the staff, sanitization, cleanliness of
colonies, etc. 96 doctors and 188 nurses have been trained to handle
ventilators through webinars hosted by the MOHFW and AIIMS. All other staff are
also getting hands on training. All the railway hospital have initiated daily
fever clinics since 6th March, 2020 in which 3399 cases have been attended.

During the year 2019-20, WR’s Jagjivan Ram Hospital became
the first railway hospital to carry out Trans -Catheter Aortic Valve
Replacement (TAVR) procedure over Indian Railways. The procedure is performed
without any major open heart surgery in high risk patients. For the first time
on Indian Railways organ retrieval was done with the help of the Zonal Organ
Transplant Centre.

Jagjivan Ram Hospital also successfully treated a challenging
case of non-union tibia and fibula with broken implants and metallosis which
was treated elsewhere and a neglected and challenging case of non-union
supracondylar fracture femur with modern AO technique and bone grafting. The
Orthopedic Dept. also performed one difficult arthrodesis of knee joint by LRS
(Limb Reconstruction System) for chronic infection of knee joint and an
acetabular fracture fixation surgery has been performed which is a rare case.
The Medical Department has initiated the facility of a Help desk. The dept. has
also enhanced patient information services by providing kiosks, TV for
displays  and audio visual aids.

The Medical Department of Vadodara Division conducted hands on
Cardio pulmonary Resuscitation training for Frontline staff at Different
stations, workshops in 2019-20. The dept. also conducted Initial Medical
examination of approx. 11,641 candidates in the year 2019-20 including appeal
cases till now.

● Security First

The Railway Protection Force (RPF) of Western Railway have
shown exceptional work during the Coronavirus Lockdown. RPF has distributed
more than 1.13 lakh food packets to the needy and poor from 28th March to 11th
April, 2020. The Special Parcel trains carrying essential commodities have been
escorted by the RPF. RPF posts/OPs are being sanitized everyday whereas
barracks are being sanitized twice in a week. Besides, sprinklers along with
disinfectants have been procured and provided at posts/barracks which are being
utilized by staff for sanitizing if need arises.

The RPF has played an instrumental role in procuring and
distributing adequate number of PPEs, masks, gloves, hand sanitizers, liquid
soap etc. among staff. Every GO has been assigned 2/3 barracks which he/she is
visiting twice in a week to check cleanliness as well as status of food
preparation in mess. Supplies/availability of liquid soap, masks, gloves,
sanitizer are also checked during such visits. Interaction with and
Sensitization of staff is also being done during such visits to keep their
moral high.

The RPF have paid keen attention to the staff above the age
of 50 yrs or with chronic ailments have been identified and are preferably not
being deployed on duties like screening of Rly staff at stations/offices, yard
patrolling, train escorting etc. Since JRH has been taken over by the State
Govt. for treating COVID positive patients, necessary PPEs have been arranged
and Separate accommodation/mess facilities have also been arranged for the
staff performing duties at JRH as a precautionary measure with a view to
segregate them from other RPF staff.

They are providing effective support to railway paramedics
working there. It is worth mentioning that in-house Production of reusable 3
ply masks by RPF female trainees at Valsad RPF female trainees have started
making 100 masks per day which are being distributed among frontline staff.

The Railway Protection Force (RPF) has day in and day out
proved their mettle with their work. Western Railway’s RPF ranked first over
Indian Railway in detection of touting cases in the financial year 2019-20 and
also to ensure genuine passengers getting confirm tickets either at PRS or at
IRCTC portal. During the financial year, total 690 cases of illegal touting
were registered and 833 offender were booked under section 143 of Railways Act
& seized the 4,06,615 E-tickets 
amounting Rs. 82,78,26,583/-.

To ensure the restriction of illegal hawking in
train/premises as well as the common passengers get the hygiene foods at
platform/train, RPF/WR arrested 32,636 illegal hawker for unauthorized hawking
in Railway premises/train and all were convicted & fined Rs.13,03,955/-
were realized also 236 hawkers were sent to jail.

To maintain the safety & security of divyangjan in
handicapped coach RPF/WR arrested 56,241 outsider for traveling in coaches
reserved for handicapped person. Out of which, 
56,213 persons were convicted and fined Rs. 96,71,090/- & 28
outsiders were send to jail. Safety & security of lady passengers was
the  prime focus area for which, RPF/WR
initiated special drives against people who traveled in the ladies reserved
coached and arrested 19,772 persons for travelling in ladies coaches
unauthorized. Out of these, 19,667 have been convicted and fined Rs.30,55,350/-
& 5 persons sent to jail.

RPF/WR also initiated special drives to save the passengers
fallen down and passengers who fall down due to footboard travelling. A total
of 13,571 people were apprehended for travelling on footboard & 13,578
persons were fined Rs.18,54,050/- & 19 outsider were send to jail. In order
to maintain the punctuality of passenger trains over Western Railway, RPF
arrested 3,769 outsider who pulled the chain without any justified reason and
booked them in 141 Railways Act and prosecuted in Railway Court and
Rs.18,05,300/- fine realized by Railway Court. During the year 2019-20, 192027
persons were apprehended under various sections include the above major section
of the Railways Act & fine Rs.4,70,75,268/- were realized.

Some Other Major Achievements by RPF in 2019-20 are:

1.  810 Runway children
were rescued by reuniting them with parents or handed over to NGOs/Police by
RPF/WR.

2. Life of 36 passengers were saved by alert RPF at various
station of Western Railway, endangering their own safety. 

3.  9884 passengers
assisted through Helpline/8311 & Twitter/1573. All the passengers given
full assistance and help by RPF on this portal.

4.  628 Criminals
involved in passenger offences i.e. 470 theft of Passenger belongings cases,
146 Robbery cases, 04 Kidnapping cases, 01 Drugging offender & 07
Impersonate Cases, were apprehended by RPF/WR.

5.  1071 Passengers
leftover belongings valued Rs.2,60,78,415/- were returned by RPF to the owners.

6. 235 cases of carrying illicit liquor were detected by RPF
with recovery of 16,631 bottles V/Rs.18,06,996/- and handed over 234 outsiders
to GRP for further action.

7. 254.94 Kg Ganja V/Rs.26,44,170/- recovered with arrest of
05 outsiders.

8. 11 cases of Crime against women were detected by RPF.

Employee Welfare Is top Priority

Western Railway is the first zonal railway to complete the
recruitment in the erstwhile Grade-D categories by recruiting around 5600
candidates in safety and other categories related directly with train
operations. Western Railway is also the first zonal railway to complete the
engagement of Act Apprentices last year. 3323 candidates were engaged under
this scheme.  3551 candidates(a bulk of
them in safety and paramedical categories) have been recruited through RRB this
year which is the best ever recruitment in an year on Western Railway.

This was made possible by advance planning and ensuring
smooth pre-recruitment formalities like document verification, expeditious
medical examination, etc. To make the training more focused and to cater to
needs of ever changing technology, a state-of-the-art training centre has been made
in each division and one for Zonal Railway. 23 training centres are being
reorganised into 12 state-of-the-art training centres. Western Railway is
leading in ensuring starting of these institutes.

Western Railway also became the first zonal railway to
complete the training of all its employees for both Saksham-I and Saksham-II
project. Comparatively, Western Railway has trained most employees amongst all
zonal railways. A compendium of all training modules was released during
Saksham-II giving details of training of each category in all departments.
W.Rly is also the first zone to establish a full fledged AYUSH dispensary where
consultants are available from all the 5 streams, viz Ayurveda, Yoga, Unani,
Siddha and Homeopathy.

●Proper care of pensioners

While Western Railway was the first to complete revision of
pension in case of all its pensioners (around one lakh) as a result of
implementation of 7th CPC in the year 2018-2019, the Accounts Department has
subsequently introduced a Grievance Module in ARPAN in April 2019, enabling
pensioners to raise their grievances on line allowing speedier resolution of
same. Beside this, a module has also been introduced in ARPAN in Jan 2020 to
enable the railway to authorize fresh family pension to dependent family
members. This has helped in speedy issue of Pension Payment Order in case of
unmarried daughter/widowed daughter/disabled children etc. which were earlier
dealt manually.