 Vinod Sharma
Early Times Report
Jammu, Nov 9: After the Centre announced demonetization of Rs 1000 and 500 currency notes, a long queue of commuters was seen Wednesday at Railway station Jammu, but the Railway authorities have failed to put in place required facilities.
For example, only two reservation windows, out of 18, have been found open while the rest remain closed for the reasons best known to the authorities.
There are 18 window counters established by the authority including enquiry window, complaint window and a separate window for differently abled persons, women, senior citizens and even for journalists.
But in utter disregard to the set norms, the Railway authority has allowed the general commuters to take reservation at the window which has been allotted for senior citizens and disabled persons.
This has resulted in inconvenience to differently abled persons and senior citizens, said a septuagenarian, Ashok Kumar, a resident of Maharashtra. He said he recently retired from the Indian Railway and had come to Jammu to pay obeisance at Mata Vaishno Devi shrine. "But due to prevailing anarchy here, it is so difficult to manage the things," he said.
"I repeatedly asked the officer if this window was allotted for senior citizens, then why do they allow other commuters to collect their tickets at the window. My pleas fell on deaf ears," Kumar told Early Times.
Another commuter, Pramod Jain said that due to demonetisation of the big currency, the cyber cafes refused to issue reservation. However, the Railway authority is accepting the same currency, but the huge rush has been affecting the reservation process. "If the Railway authority had made sufficient counters functional, the problem could be reduced and the scene would have been different," said Jain.
DTM, Jammu Railway, Sukhdev attributed acute shortage of manpower and employees' poor medical condition to mal-functioning of the railway. |
