Will have to think of measures to prevent protests on Pune Metro premises: Maha Metro’s Shravan Hardikar

“We held a hackathon last year with MIT-WPU for Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning based video analytics solutions. This would alert us if anyone crosses the yellow line on the metro platform or jumps on the tracks. We will implement this in the next three to six months. However, this will not be enough and we have to find some better way of guarding ourselves from such incidents happening,” he added.

Sunday protests

On Sunday, NCP (SP) workers blocked the Aqua Line (Vanaz-Ramwadi) of the Pune Metro by climbing onto the tracks near PMC station to protest against ‘lack’ of employment and other issues. This affected Pune Metro operations for around two hours from 12.45 pm to 2.45 pm.

Fire brigade teams arrived at the scene and nets were spread on the road below to prevent serious injury in case anyone fell. The police said the protesters behaved aggressively and splashed them with petrol.

NCP(SP) city chief Prashant Jagtap distanced the party from the protest and said that it does not support any activity which affects the people of Pune. He also announced that the party expelled Narendra Pawtekar after the protest.

Action against protesters

The Pune police have booked 17 protesters, who blocked the Pune Metro on Sunday, under 17 sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), eight sections of the Metro Railways (Operation and Maintenance) Act, and two sections of the Maharashtra Police Act.

As many as 17 people, including Pawtekar, have been arrested. The protesters have been booked under Sections 191 (rioting) and 189 (unlawful assembly) of BNS. Section 132 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty) of BNS, which is non-bailable, has also been included in the FIR, apart from Section 74 (maliciously wrecking a train or causing sabotage) of the Metro Railways Act, which stipulates a minimum imprisonment of three years.

Hemant R Sonawane, Executive Director (Public Relations and Administration), Pune Metro, told The Indian Express that these stringent sections would help deter any similar incidents in the future.

“We have filed a strong FIR with non-bailable sections,” Sandeep Singh Gill, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Zone 1, told The Indian Express.

He also said a local court remanded eight of the accused to police custody for two days while others were sent to magisterial custody remand.