Bengaluru: Friction between the Karnataka State Industrial Security Force personnel and BMRCL staff, was enough to stop the Metro for seven hours last week. This time around, a police person was assaulted, the station controller taken into police custody and the commuters left to fend for themselves.
Who ensures the safety of passengers when the security personnel themselves are involved in a scuffle? “There is an issue with insubordination and lack of discipline. There needs to be a documented process to follow if any such scuffle or tension occurs, so the public is safe. Any deviation would need action by station in-charge. That way the situation would be defused, not escalated," said Mr Srinidhi, a member of Praaja RAAG advocacy group, adding that the whole city was unnecessarily made to undergo outage.
“These are not sporadic incidents and they should not be allowed to go out of hand. There is a need for a third party to control the situation before anyone gets hurt,” he recommended.
The station in-charge would ideally stay on top of the situation, but here, he was in police custody. The public were fortunately not harmed in this clash, but safety measures for future or worse occurrences are needed, he said.
“They can't shut down the Metro every time something goes wrong. They have to prepare and follow textbook procedures when something happens out of the blue. How to activate emergency evacuation plan, protect Metro property, alert police and traffic police, etc” commented Mr Sanjeev Dyamnavar, also from Praaja RAAG.
Allowing trains to run for one hour without a station controller or a replacement in his absence, was a serious lapse of security, he said. “This shows the callous attitude of BMRCL. The loco pilot needs to coordinate and get clearance from station controller. Also, the police can’t just barge into the control room and take the staff away. There are procedures for that too," he said.
