Railways

Lots of good work and progress, while there is room for more always

Bad waiting period for railway reservation - 120 days - pathetic. Cancellation/Waitlisted/Tatkal tickets rules not in favor of common people. IRCTC site still pathetic response.

Issues:
1) Travelling without reservation in coaches for reserved tickets is a very common sight, which is not possible without the connivance of the Ticket checker and the Railway Police. I had received a video clip showing a policeman in the coach collecting money from the passenger in the reserved coach. This menace has to be tackled fastest possible.
2) Outside vendors in coaches without a licence and name plate on the lapel must not be allowed, for the reasons that the food/eatables/drinks they sell in the coaches are extremely of poor quality and at much higher cost. At least, their entry in the reserved coach should be banned.
3. Pantry cars are not maintained at the expected standards. Cleanliness is lacking.
4. Official vendors from the Pantry Car must carry the official Menu Card with authenticated prices of the food articles, along with a cash receipt book. The Ticket Collector/Checker should carry a list of railway officers concerned with the maintenance of the pantry car, toilets, and coaches. There are often seen handicapped beggars cleaning the coach-floors and then demanding money from the passengers, which is very wrong. They must be prohibited.
5. Often, in long distant running trains, it is observed the water gets finished on way and there is no mechanism of replenishing the same. Also, the toilets are very dirty the cleanliness is not there with baskets getting overloaded. There should be posted for 6-8 hours one sweeper for serving 4-5 coaches regularly.

Despite efforts of the Minister, the corrupt employees are ensuring that nothing comes out. I wrote a complaint against shoddy condition of Railway Retiring Room at Kanpur Central station in November 2016 and shoddy state of services at Bhopal Junction in January 2017 but till date the employees who are merrily pilfering funds have not cared to respond.