The GRP, whose costs are borne by the railways and the state governments on a 50:50 ratio, has remained the unwanted child far too long. The force which was set up to curb crime on the railways, now finds itself helpless at the sheer magnitude of the duties that are thrust on it.

Though a decision has been taken by the GRP today that one armed constable will guard each ladies compartment between 8 pm-8 am, thus putting 175 men on the Western Railway and 250 on the Central Railway on the job, it has come at a cost. These men will be pulled out of a duty that is equally under public glare - that ofescorting the long distance trains.

Thus the safety of long distance passengers will be compromised upon to make the lives of Mumbai commuters a dash safer.

Though the force has always been complaining about lack of manpower, at no point of time has it been felt more acutely than this year. A rash of robberies on long distance trains like Gorakhpur Express led to the posting of over 200 personnel on these trains early this year.

Then came the stone throwing incidents, which led to public outcry after a computer operator Sony Joseph was blinded in an eye near Dahisar in June. The number of such incidents has already touched 35, the highest recorded so far in the last five years.

In reply, the GRP started patrolling of the railway tracks. Nearly 100 constables walk entire length of the tracks in Mumbai everyday in what is at times a futile attempt at prevention of these incidents.

Though they had promised to post one constable in front of the ladies compartment on each platform, the decision was notimplemented due to shortage of manpower. This, ultimately, had a hand in the tragedy.

``We cannot do everything at the same time because we don't have the required resources,'' claims Superintendent of Police (GRP) S Ramachandran. According to figures available at the SP's office at Byculla, there is a shortage of more than 260 personnel in the force. ``Out of a total strength of 2,250, we are left with less than 2,000, even when the actual workforce required is at least 50 per cent more than what we have now,'' said Ramachandran.

The force has to deal with problems like bodies lying on tracks, which have crossed 1,500 this year, looking into crimes on trains, where their detection record has been a dismal 10 per cent for the last five years and even doing bandobast duties during elections and as and when requested by the state.

Several proposals by the GRP to the government asking for increase in workforce have been hanging fire for as long as 15 years. Requests for setting up police stations inplaces like Vashi, Wadala, Dadar and Churchgate have stayed rooted to government files since 1989, despite reminders. ``At present, the Kurla railway police station covers an area from Reay Road to Panvel, which is almost over 25 per cent of the area of the entire city,'' said an officer attached to the station. The Kurla police station has a staff of 376 policemen.

``We are doing this only to show that we are trying our best,'' said Ramachandran, commenting on the decision to post the armed constables in the ladies compartments. But there again, the GRP might run into a problem, their rule book states that in case the constabulary is armed, they should move in pairs. ``But we do not have enough men even to follow the rule,'' rued another senior official.

How long will the protection continue? ``As long as it needs to be done, or until a series of robberies on long distance trains make us rush over there,'' said Ramachandran.