The Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS) has made certain suggestions for providing better services to passengers, withdrawing age-old coaches and doing away with collection of extra amount for Tatkal tickets.
The suggestions have been addressed to the Railway Minister ahead of the Railway Budget, to be presented in February.
BMS Legal Cell in-charge for Andhra Pradesh K. Bhavani Shankarudu hoped that the suggestions would be discussed in the budget session.
The railways should stop collecting extra amount by way of Tatkal tickets. They should also do away with the policy of forfeiting refund of total amount on Tatkal confirmed tickets in case of cancellation.
Passengers booking their tickets through Internet put in extra efforts apart from reducing the burden on manual ticketing, which was a saving for the railways.
Therefore, they should not be penalised by way of collection of service charges on E-ticket.
Dynamic pricing in premium trains should be stopped as it was a heavy burden on the common man.
The railway enquiry number ‘139’ should be made toll free. CCTV cameras should be installed in all compartments. The other suggestions include checking the rates and quality of food items on platforms as well as in running trains at regular intervals to prevent serving of sub-standard food at high rates to passengers, display of IRCTC rates in all coaches and provision of additional facilities to senior citizens, physically challenged, women and children travelling in trains.
Passenger safety
Mr. Bhavani Shankarudu sought provision of mobile charging sockets in all compartments, announcement of present and next stations in the trains and supply of bedrolls in Sleeper Class on payment.
RPF guards should be posted in all reserved compartments to ensure safety of passengers and waiting rooms should be provided at all stations to all passengers. Implementation of these suggestions would go a long way in making the railways more passenger-friendly.
A string of suggestions made to the minister ahead of Railway Budget
