PUNE: A video in which an RPF jawan is shown pouring water on the faces of people sleeping at the Pune railway station has gone viral inviting criticism and furore with people terming the act insensitive and inhumane.
The jawan, in the video, which has been widely circulated since Friday afternoon, is shown approaching a group of passengers who are asleep at the station with a water bottle and then pouring water on their faces, startling and waking them up.
BS Raghuvanshi, the senior inspector, RPF, Pune station, confirmed the incident. "Sleeping anywhere at the railway station is a major cause of concern for us. This results in a lot of inconvenience to passengers rushing to catch trains. We will try to control this situation at the station," the officer told TOI.
Samrat Joshi, who is a regular at the Pune station, said that the video had shocked him. "How can they be so insensitive? They can always wake up the passenger and ask him or her to move. Putting water in their faces shows how inhumane they are. How many waiting areas and resting rooms for the general public are there at the station and how many people these can accommodate? While sleeping anywhere including on the circulating areas of the station is not good and causes problems for others, what are passengers who have come from far off places for trains which are nowadays delayed by hours and days, supposed to do?", he told TOI.
In a series of tweets on Saturday as form of damage control, the Pune RPF said, "Sleeping on platform causes inconvenience to passengers. Since passage is not clear, several passengers miss their trains at Pune Railway Station. Large number of alarm chain pulling are caused by genuine passengers, who cannot reach trains due to blocked passages to trains… However, the method adopted by the concerned RPF staff was not proper. The concerned RPF staff should have advised those sleeping to vacate the platform courteously and should not have resorted to the measures shown in the video. The concerned RPF staff has been removed from passenger area duty. He will be given refresher training in soft skills before his redeployment in the passenger intensive area…".
Pune’s divisional railway manager Indu Dubey apologised on social media stating that the incident was deeply regretted.
"The way the incident was handled is not a suitable way. Concerned staff has been advised to deal with passengers with dignity, politeness and decency," he said.
