Rs 20 railway pass will give mobility to poors

On her first day in the office, though in eastern office in Kolkata, railway minister announced this scheme to provide pass for Rs 20 for poor workers. This is a welcomed step without going into the details that this scheme might already be in final phase during the previous railway minister, Lalu Prasad Yadav. This scheme will serve two purposes. First, this will provide mobility to the poor and needy people. They can go to cities and other places for better work opportunities and social networking or whatever. Second, many of the people who commute by train without ticket because of lack of money can afford this pass and will have right to commute with dignity rather than travelling in toilets or listening the abuses of the TC.

Though this scheme will have its challenges as well for its implementation. At the first place how to find people who are really poor and earn below Rs 500 a month? the best way can be use the ration card and application approved by a officer or MP/MLA/district administration as per rules for other application in similar circumstances. Other challenge is to communicate this new scheme with the poor. If they do not know about the scheme then there is no way they can benefit from it. Biggest challenge will be to accommodate the increased number of passengers that the popularity of the scheme can bring in. Many of the routes are already over crowded. I have travelled a lot on Delhi-Moradabad-Rampur route and find every train is overcrowded and filled till door steps. Express trains have generally only 2-3 general compartments and they can not accommodate all the daily commuters on busy routes.

If the capacity is not increased then popular schemes can bring havoc for the railway staff and uncomfortable journey for the reserved class passengers who already face ire of tired and exhausted daily passengers.