Parliament today gave its seal of approval to the Railway Property Unlawful Possession Amendment Bill 2011 with the Lok Sabha adopting it with a voice vote. The Rajya Sabha had already passed it. Replying to the debate in the Lok Sabha, the Minister of State for Railways K H Muniyappa said the Act seeks to protect railway property and give punishment to offenders.

He said Railway Protection Force, RPF has been given more power through this legislation so that it can inquire into cases of encroachment of railway property and take action against the errant.

He said the work of fencing and plantation is also on the vacant properties of the Railways. Mr Muniyappa informed that there are 15,000 vacancies in the RPF out of the total strength of 74,000 and a process was on to fill them up.