Injustice To Railway Passengers Ends, Courtesy Grahak Panchayat

The Railway Board was made to bow before the consumer, the railway passenger in this case, thanks to the effective intervention of the Chennai High Court in a case filed by Rajendran of Mayiladuthurai, an active member of the Tamilnadu unit of Akhil Bharatiya Grahak Panchayat (ABGP).

The details: The Chennai – Tiruchirappalli (Cholan) Express is operated between Chennai Egmore and Tiruchirappalli via Thanjavur. It is out and out a daytime train, The departure time at Egmoe is 08.15 AM and arrival time at Tiruchy is 5.50 PM. But if anyone books a SEAT, he used to shell out Rs. 200.00 which included the BERTH charges (Rs 100.00). As no one normally needs a berth during a daytime journey, charging the consumer for a berth was uncalled for and unjust. Activists of ABGP collected over 3,000 signatures of travellers in that train (with PNR number) in a petition calling for an end to the injustice and sent it to the authorities. Since the Railway authorities failed to respond to this request by the consumer, the applicant chose the legal route.

Result: the passengers now book a seat paying just half the previous amount. Not only that, the total beneficiaries are 600 passengers every day now, with 3 chair car bogies attached to the express, thanks to the efforts of ABGP.

IT MEANS THAT ALL THESE DAYS THE CONSUMERS WERE BEING FLEECED AND THE RAILWAYS HAD BEEN DEFRAUDING THE PASSENGERS TO THE TUNE OF CRORES OF RUPEES EVERY YEAR IN THIS SINGLE EPISODE.

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