Perhaps to use the findings as yet another lever against the incumbent Bihar government, Nitish Kumar asked his ministry to prepare a report on crimes committed in trains passing through the state. The findings of the confidential report recently submitted were: ``The general atmosphere of indiscipline and disregard for the rule of law coupled with the impression that one can get away with any violation of law is the main cause for the deteriorating law and order situation, and increasing trend of crime in the state of Bihar in general, and in the railway premises and running trains in particular.''

The report is based on the statistics of 1996 and 1997 and it was found the number of dacoities and robberies in running trains were maximum as they passed throughBihar. Easy availability of illicit arms in the state was cited as one of the main reasons. In 1997, the state contributed 23 per cent of the total incidents in the category, the highest in the country. Uttar Pradesh accounted for 15 per cent of the incidents and West Bengal 21 per cent.

The statistics show that in the 80 incidents reported from Bihar, eight persons were killed (as against four from other states together) and 89 were injured, besides heavy loss of property of passengers. What is even more shocking is that 44 of these incidents took place in trains which were being escorted by the state Government Railway Police (GRP).

What the report found to be a matter of serious concern was the use of firearms in 80 per cent of the cases in Bihar.

Among the causes of ``unusually high incidence of heinous crimes'' in trains in Bihar, the report points out to the complete collapse of law and order, general disregard for rules, lack of discipline in commuters, large scale ticketless travelling,unauthorised entry into reserved compartments, unauthorised halts and frequent unscheduled stoppage of trains by Alarm Chain Pulling and Hose Pipe Disconnection.

As a solution, the report suggests escort parties be briefed properly to be on the lookout for illicit arms. This could also help in nabbing the gangs operating in trains. ``Similar exercise should also be undertaken at the platforms. Hand held metal detectors will be useful to detect illicit arms,'' the report says.

Detailed analysis revealed that the maximum cases were particularly reported between Buxar and Madhupur. The other vulnerable area was the Patna-Gaya section. These include railway sections connected with Patna, Kiul and Barkakana, encompassing the police districts of Patna, Dhanbad, Monghyre, Jehanabad, Hazaribagh, Palamu, Jamui, Daltonganj and Ranchi.

Of the total cases, 44 were reported from mail and express trains, and 36 in passenger trains. The worst affected trains were Tata-Patna Express, Muri Express and Toofan Express.Incidents were also reported in Shramshakti Express, Saryu-Yamuna Express, Mithila Express, Jodhpur Express, Chunar-Barwadih Express and Gnga-Satluj Express.

Majority of the cases (62.5 per cent) took place in the General class followed by 36.2 per cent in the Sleeper class. Again a large majority of cases (86 per cent) took place during night between 6 pm and 6 am. ``The state police have been repeatedly saying that they cannot escort all the trains due to paucity of staff. However, escorting of all the trains passing through Bihar during night may help in preventing such cases substantially,'' the report suggests.

Expressing serious concern about the ``distressing'' fact that more than 50 per cent incidents took place in trains escorted by the GRP, the report recommends reassessment of the escort system itself.

The report has also recommended setting up of a `special coordination group' for a concerted effort to deal with controlling railway crime in Bihar. ``The group should have representatives fromRailway Commercial, Railway Protection Force (RPF), GRP, RPSF and Civil Police. The group should meet every month to review the progress,'' the report states.