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Opinion
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| Inside the track: the glossary of my journey Written by Ashok Raina | | | |
Usually, I have a habit of going through the roads because I am used to walking on the straight path and what do I achieve by straying and everyone cannot refuse to accept this fact
What can I hide from you, in fact my aim is also to keep moving in the right direction on the straight track by following the basic pattern of the path so that there is no possibility of any kind of feasibility or difficulty in reaching the difficult destination. The point to be noted is that just as the driver of a railway engine makes his achievement successful by taking his train towards the final destination by following the path in the right direction through the fascination and hypnosis of the straight track. You know that like a railway driver, I too am never willing to compromise with any weather or conditions which would otherwise prove to be obstacles.
Like you, I too have made many successful journeys by train across the country and during all such experiences of journeys I have seen trains passing smoothly and running at high speed on long tracks towards their destinations but all the times I get extremely surprised from all the long tall claims made by the governments that appeared hollow to me.
Perhaps you will also agree and support me that heaps of garbage can be seen lying disgustingly on the railway tracks at various railway stations and the Swachh Abhiyan Mahim has reached a certain stage but the administration is a silent spectator. The sad and regretful point is that the honorable Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi ji himself had started the Swachh Abhiyan campaign in the country by taking a broom in his hand but the matter has not been come to understand within the minds of people, it is not a fault to mention regretting for the significant matter.
The second important thing is that the illegal activities related to reservation of seats and sale of tickets in the railway department do not seem to stop yet. Many claims of the government and the railway ministry are proving to be hollow. I have seen many passengers standing in long queues at different stations in India to get tickets and as soon as passengers reach the window, they have to return disappointed even for Tatkal reservation and later the same passengers often go out and get passenger tickets from agents and touts from nearby adjacent squares by charging them good prices.
As far as the safety of every passenger is concerned during the railway journey, many questions are being raised. In local trains, cases of mobile theft, luggage theft, wallet theft are also seen and passengers are seen facing such incidents and at some place’s disputes are seen taking place regarding seats and such incidents are seen before the eyes.
No one can deny the fact that passengers with general class tickets often enter the reserved compartments, who are often assured by the TT that there is a possibility of getting reservation from any of the next stations. This is the reason that there is a crowd of passengers in the reserved compartments as well and complaints are often received about people's wallets being cut under mysterious circumstances there as well.
I myself have come to know that many illiterate passengers are cheated at the ticket counter itself. They are charged the full fare of the journey destinations but are given tickets only till half the journey and are asked to confirm their tickets after reaching the station. However, before reaching the next station, the agents and tots sit in ambush on the way to issue tickets in favor of other passengers against the already deceived arrangements. Afterwards the real passengers are forced to travel standing in the same reserved compartment of the passenger train. Passengers are being duped in this way by the ticket fraudsters.
Not only this, many questions are being raised in the railway department regarding providing dinner to the passengers viz a viz the distribution of food and supplements. in the reservation coaches.
While buying tickets online or from railway windows, passengers are asked to order food as per their choice for dinner but the arrangement of food is done by some private agency on contractual basis and when both the parties are concerned about earning, then you must have time to think about how to prepare food for the passengers as well.
Sometimes it is also seen that after dinner at night, there is abundance of liquor bottles in the railway compartment and this practice and trend has been started more in A and B air-conditioned class coaches and hence if the family is with the passenger, then the passenger is not found comfortable at all.
The series of events of my journey will continue as usual and I hope you liked this episode of my travel “inside the track: the glossary of my journey".
(The author of this article is Ashok Raina editor of daily Northern Times)
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