Shazneen Mistry
The Central Railway (CR) in their latest report showed that they had fined more than 90,000 commuters who were traveling ticketless as well as without proper documentation and the total amount of fine recovered from the commuters in July was ₹3.8lakhs.
The increase in the commuters traveling without tickets was first witnessed in June, where, 62,000 passengers were fined and ₹2.6 lakh was recovered from them. “We urge only the passengers who are permitted by the state government to travel by local trains. We have noticed an increase in passengers that have been traveling with fake identity cards, transfer of tickets, and altered tickets. We appeal to the passengers to travel with proper and valid railway tickets to avoid inconvenience,” said a senior Central Railway official.
The local train facilities are currently available for employees working in essential care and people who are traveling for medical purposes. Recently they have also agreed to allow people who are fully vaccinated to use the railway facilities as long as they can provide the railway officers proper proof of their vaccination certificate. “Passengers, as identified by the state government, are only permitted to travel in suburban local trains currently. A decision on allowing passengers and checking for vaccinated passengers will be done
alongside the Maharashtra government,” said a senior railway official.
Sulakshana Mahajan, an urban planner said, “The doctors and the government agencies will be able to analyze the risks and the benefits and then decide on allowing the general public in local trains. The government agencies will also have to work to control the crowd inside train compartments.”
Between April and July, this year, 3,04,000 passengers traveling without tickets were fined by the Central Railway, and ₹15.9 crores were recovered as a fine. The local train services were suspended for the general public for the second time on April 15.
To conclude, it is essential that we follow the guidelines provided by the railway commission because it is for everyone's safety and as well as buy tickets while traveling as they are much cheaper than the fine.
