: Despite having a law in place, the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) has never penalised anyone for misusing the emergency alarm inside metro trains.
According to Chapter 11 of the Delhi Metro Railways (Operation and Maintenance) Act, 2002, if any passenger makes improper use of official communication equipment or “misuses the alarm bell of the train”, then he/she is punishable by imprisonment up to one year or fine up to Rs.1,000, or both. But none of these punishments have been given to any violators.
Explaining the reason, a DMRC spokesperson said, “The frequency of using the emergency buttons is fairly low. Also, whenever the alarm is used, DMRC treats each call as a genuine case. People even use these alarms to seek cleaning of coaches if, say, someone has puked.”
An RTI application filed by one Mukesh Kumar on the use of these alarm buttons has revealed that in the past one year (March 1, 2015 to March 1, 2016) a total of 1,470 people used the facility across the network of the Delhi Metro. The reply also stated that the maximum use of the alarm was reported from the busy Blue Line (Dwarka, Sector 21- Noida City Centre/Vaishali), whereas the least was on the Airport Express Line.
The application had also sought information on the most and the least common reasons for the use of this facility. “Responding to the query on the number of people penalised till date for misusing the emergency button, the DMRC said that such information was not maintained by it,” said Mr. Kumar.
The RTI reply, a copy of which is with The Hindu , states, “The DMRC does not have the information sought. Therefore, it does not fall under the ambit of the Right to Information Act, 2005.”
While the DMRC acknowledged the RTI and its reply, it maintained that it keeps a record of every communication made by commuters through its equipment.
“We keep a record of every call made by passengers,” said the spokesperson.
According to law, violators can be imprisoned up to one year, fined Rs.1,000, or both
Published - April 17, 2016 12:00 am IST
