Indian Railway News Recently, the Supreme Court, while commenting against the Indian Railways regarding the delay, said that it cannot escape the responsibility of delaying trains. If it causes financial loss to any passenger, then railways should pay compensation.
Arvind Kumar Singh. Indian Railway News A passenger named Sanjay Shukla has taken refuge in the Supreme Court regarding the compensation given by the Railways for the delay of the train. He was traveling with his family on 11 June 2016 by Ajmer-Jammu Express, which was to reach Jammu at 8:10 am. But the train arrived at 12 o’clock due to which he missed the plane going from Jammu to Srinagar. Later it cost him extra to stay in Jammu and then go to Srinagar.
A few days later, he reached the consumer court of Alwar district, which ordered the North Western Railway to pay a compensation of Rs 30,000. If the Railways wanted, it would have settled the matter by paying the compensation, but it went to the State and National Consumer Forum where the decision went against it. Railways challenged this in the Supreme Court. It was argued on behalf of the Railways that according to its rules, there is no responsibility of the Railways to pay compensation for delay in trains. But this argument was not accepted by the Supreme Court and upheld the decision.
Of course, being late in the train will be considered as a deficiency in service under the Consumer Protection Act and for this the passenger has the option of going to the consumer court and getting compensation. The train ticket issued by the Railways mentions the departure and arrival time of the train concerned. On this basis, earlier the Railways had to pay compensation on the orders of the National Forum. But the question is, the process that the Railways has created for the return of normal tickets, when it is not easy to achieve, then Sanjay Shukla’s patience for compensation, fighting ability and fighting between the lawyer and the court. How many people have Of course, even in consumer forums, it takes a long time to settle the matter.
The question arises that if the Tejas Express running under the administrative control of Indian Railways can have a system of compensation for the delay with a special gift scheme for the passengers, then why such a system should not be made in the rest of the trains in case of delay. can. Tejas Express currently operates between New Delhi-Lucknow and Ahmedabad-Mumbai. In this, there is a provision of compensation of Rs 100 to the passengers if the train is late by one hour and Rs 250 for the delay of more than two hours. Passengers are compulsorily insured up to Rs 25 lakh, which also includes insurance of up to Rs 1 lakh in case of theft of luggage.
It is noteworthy that Indian Railways is preparing to run 151 private trains on 109 pairs of routes, on which an investment of about 30 thousand crores will be made. By the year 2023, when these trains start running, then private companies will have to follow up to 95 percent in any case. After all, why is the railway system shying away from making such arrangements for itself. 36834 cases of theft of passengers’ belongings were registered in trains in the year 2018 and 36849 cases in 2019. There is also a provision to give compensation for stolen goods from the railways, but no matter how much valuables are stolen, compensation is not available until the passenger proves that this happened due to the negligence of the railways itself.
There is a provision to pay compensation to railway passengers in case of death or injury in train accidents as defined under section 124 of the Railways Act 1989. But for this, they have to approach the Railway Claims Tribunal and after passing a decree in its favor, compensation is given only when the railway is satisfied with it. At the same time, there is no provision for any kind of compensation in the case of delay in the Railway Act. Although there is a rule for refund of fare in case of cancellation of the train or running late by more than three hours, but also if the ticket is deposited before the stipulated period i.e. the actual departure time of the train. In such case the full fare is refundable. Under this, in the year 2014-15, the Railways had refunded an amount of Rs 8.41 crore, while in 2018-19 Rs 40.19 crore. During the Corona crisis, 4.87 crore tickets were canceled for which the Railways had to refund Rs 5716 crore.
Indian Railways figures show that in 2005-06, 91.2 percent of the trains were running on time on broad gauge i.e. big line and 97.6 percent on meter gauge i.e. small line. In the year 2013-14, 83 percent and in 2014-15, 79 percent were running on time. In the year 2015-16, 77.5 percent, while in 2018-19, 69.23 percent trains ran on time. In the year 2018, only 59.9 percent of the trains ran on time in the month of May. In the year 2017-18, 30 percent of the trains of Indian Railways were late, due to which the then Railway Minister Piyush Goyal was questioned in Parliament and he had to face criticism.
Indian Railways is the most reliable mode of transport for the common man. More than 95 percent of the passengers on Indian Railways travel in unreserved and non-air-conditioned coaches i.e. sleeper coaches of suburban, ordinary passenger trains and mail-express trains. From traveling on the roofs of trains, railways are unable to handle the huge rush of festivals. Passengers have to bear the brunt of delay in trains. The people waiting for them are also a huge waste of time and money. Therefore, by making a concrete policy regarding compensation, the Railways should take the initiative to improve its structure.
