New Delhi: Paragha-athletes who are bound by wheelchairs and Social Workers Suvarna Raj order train tickets to Nagpur with a defect quota on Wednesday.
To be honest, he found his past bitter episode playing alone once again.
The ticket he gets in Delhi-Visakhapatnam is special has a top bed booked, just like four years ago.
And as in 2017, this time he claimed he had clearly mentioned that he was a disabled person (PWD) when ordering a ticket but had been allocated the main bed by the railroad system.
Raj said he finally exchanged seats with senior citizens, who were too struggling to go up to the top bed.
Athletes who suffer from 190% immobility of the lower limbs due to polio infections during childhood.
“In four years since I faced a problem and a similar guarantee given by the train Minister, Suresh Prabhu, it seems like nothing has changed and the PWD still has to fight for accessibility,” said Raj to Toi.
The train display must not only offer an apology that does not qualify for the victim but also takes immediate steps to ensure that such an error is not repeated.
A simple technology-based solution can permanently fix this repetitive problem.
In June 2017, Raj had faced trials such as the Nagpur-Delhi train.
After being given a top bed, he had approached the travel ticket checker, but was told that the coach was full and there were no alternative beds available.
Only a few months later in September, he returned to find he was not given a lower seat according to his PWD status.
On Wednesday, he took the train to Nagpur to find that he had given a top bed despite the order under a defective quota.
“In 2017, I had to travel by sitting on the coach’s wet floor with my son,” he said.
“This year, with TTE it didn’t help at all, I had to swap my seats with fellow passengers.
I didn’t expect a problem like this happened again after years.” He made a lack of love for people with disabilities.
When contacted, a train official claimed that the allocation of seats was carried out by Indian train catering and tourism corporation (IRCTC), with trains did not have a role in the rationing process.
An IRCTC official told TOI that while the system had been given information to automatically share a lower bed if someone ordered under the option Divyang, the top bed was provided every time all the lower beds were allocated.
“This has not been done intentionally or causes discomfort,” the official said.
“This software must share the bed but if all the bottom beds are occupied, it has no choice but to order a top bed.
In such cases, officials on the train ship have been ordered to make the chair adjusted.”