Passengers on board trains will now be able to lodge 'zero FIR', investigation in cases of theft, crime against women to begin immediately

New Delhi: Soon, passengers on board trains can lodge complain through a mobile app and it will be registered as ‘Zero FIR and immediately investigated by the RPF, a senior official of the force has said. A pilot project under which complaints of harassment, theft, a crime against women can be lodged through a mobile application is already ongoing in Madhya Pradesh which will be replicated across the country soon. [caption id=“attachment_4713331” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. PTI[/caption] “The passenger now need not wait for the next station to lodge a complaint. They will be able to complain through the mobile app and the RPF will reach to help them,” said RPF DG Arun Kumar. The complaint will be treated as ‘Zero FIR’ and investigation will begin immediately, he said. Zero-FIR means that an FIR can be filed in any police station (i.e. irrespective of place of incident/jurisdiction) and the same can be later transferred to the appropriate police station. Currently, if there is an incident that passenger wants to report, he has to fill up a complaint form provided by the ticket examiner which is submitted to the RPF or GRP at the next station. This form gets transferred into an FIR automatically. This lead to delays and passengers don’t get immediate relief. The app will not only have the presence of RPF, but also the Government Railway Police (GRP) as well as TTEs and the train conductor. The app will also have a panic button for women in distress. On 14 December last year, Home Minister Rajnath Singh had proposed that railway develop an online mechanism to address passengers on board running trains. On this app, passengers can also complain offline.