In order to provide security to passengers, Railway Minister Laloo Prasad Yadav has ordered that Railway Protection Force personnel would be on all long-distance trains.
The move comes in the wake of a recent robbery in Farakka Express in Bihar and similar incidents in other parts of the country, railway ministry sources said in New Delhi on Monday.
The RPF personnel would also guard women's compartments in local suburban trains.
Yadav, the sources said, had also directed his ministry to enforce the amended Railway Act, 1989 and the amended RPF Act, 1957 by conferring the power of police on the RPF from July 1, 2004.
The previous government had amended the two acts in 2003, but their enforcement was postponed because of the Lok Sabha election, for which more than one hundred RPF companies were deployed.
State governments have consented to implement the two amended acts as law and order are the state subject and the security of passenger, both on trains and in railway premises, is the concern of the Government Railway Police, an organisation of the state government.
Accordingly, 26 petty criminal issues outside the ambit of the Indian Panel Code would be looked after by the RPF and heinous crimes, like dacoity, shootouts, sabotage and insurgency would be taken care off by GRP, the sources said.