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Experience, it is said, is a great teacher. Hopefully, the Union Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav’s experience as an ordinary passenger on a train from Kishanganj to Patna on Capital Express would teach him a few realities of the railway network that he heads. The minister travelled by an air-conditioned coach. He should actually travel in an ordinary non-AC coach, preferably an unreserved one, to experience the travails of an ordinary passenger on the biggest railway network in the world. Apparently, his experiences on the train, beginning with the dirty, stinking toilets, so upset his sensibilities that he could not bring himself to even eat on the train. And even two days after the travel, he was apparently disgusted with the lack of hygiene on the train. I wonder if it reminded him about the promises that he made while presenting the Railway Budget last year? Hygiene was one of the focal areas of his speech and he said he would launch a nationwide cleanliness drive on the tracks, off the tracks, at the railway stations and inside the compartments and the toilets. If it didn’t, one would like to refresh his memory about these promises. Why should railway passengers or citizens wait for an entire year, when the railway minister presents his budget, to know about the progress made on the previous years’ promises? At least, once in a quarter, people should be provided with a progress report card. Such a quarterly report card is a must and passengers should insist on it. If the Railway Minister himself is disgusted with the hygiene on the train, then obviously, the promises have not been kept. Today India is moving towards being a major economic power, but if you look at the dirty, stinking, depressing railway stations with those even more depressing announcement systems, one gets a feeling that we have sat in a time capsule and moved back a 100 years. Whether it is the train, its toilets or the platforms, the cleaning has to be in tune with the number of users and the Railways should get modern equipment for the purpose. It’s time the Railway Ministry thought of handing over the development of our railway stations to private players and earned some good revenue from it too, through shopping malls. And put that revenue to good use by providing better services to passengers. Some of the cases that come up before the consumer courts pertaining to the railways should make the railways hang their head in shame. In several cases, what the consumers were fighting for, were the minimum basic facilities that the railways should have provided. Take the case of Yashwant Tiwari. His grievance was that he and his family suffered untold hardship on account of the absence of water in the toilet. Instead of expressing regret, the Railways appealed against the compensation of Rs 10,000 awarded by the consumer court, only to be turned down by the apex consumer court. Pohare’s case also highlights the attitude of the Railways towards those it is supposed to serve. The couple, who was travelling from Kurla to Ankola, found the toilets very dirty. On their complaint, the assistant station master (ASM) sent a sweeper to clean the coach as well as the toilets. But the guard on duty objected to it and asked the sweeper to leave. Pohare and other passengers protested and said they would not allow the train to leave till the cleaning work was done. Early next morning, at Igatpuri station, the guard got the police to force the couple to detrain. They had to spend an entire day in Igatpuri and take the next day’s train to reach their destination. Unfortunately, the consumer court awarded a measly compensation of Rs 5,000 to the couple. |
