If losing valuable personal belongings on board a train or on Railways property is unnerving, reporting the loss of the valuables is an uphill task. Passenger are often clueless about who to contact and where to go to report the loss.
New Delhi District Consumer Forum has now directed Railways to display names of authorities, their telephone numbers and procedure to register a complaint in coaches. The order was passed after a complaint before the forum highlighted the harrowing experience of an elderly woman on board Navyug Express.
The forum took the complaint as “general public grievance” considering it a routine experience where passengers lose their belongings but do not know what authority to approach. The Railways has been asked to address the issue from the point of view of an ordinary passenger and directed “Railway authorities to display in coach, the procedure, the duty of TTE, Railway police, and the telephone number so that travelling public is facilitated rather than harassed in such loss.”
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The woman, a resident of Railway colony in Tuglakabad, lost her purse containing valuables on October 10, 2013. She tried to seek help from the TTE and the Railway Police Force, but everyone passed the buck. Later, her daughter-in-law moved the forum seeking compensation.
The forum disposed the case on the ground that the complaint was filed by a kin and not the aggrieved person.
However, before parting with the order, the Forum, comprising president C. K. Chaturvedi and members S.R Chaudhary and Ritu Garodia, noted that the Railways had failed to outline the procedure which any person should or has to follow in a situation as that faced by the woman in the instant case.
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“No doubt consumer is not before us, but we take the complaint as a general public grievance, as we all find this to be routine experience and direct complaint’s copy to be forwarded to chairman, Railway authority, to redress the issue from view point of ordinary passenger and direct Railway authorities to display in coach, the procedure, the duty of TTE, Railway Police and the telephone number so that travelling public is facilitated rather than harassed in such loss.”
According to Railways Claim Tribunal Act, the Railways is responsible for loss, damage or deterioration of goods in transit except when it is caused by an act of God, war, natural deterioration.
The Railways have been directed to prominently display the names of authorities, their telephone numbers and the procedure to register a complaint in case of loss of valuables