Title - Concessions in travel fare cost Railways dear

Bathinda : With an increase in the misuse of rail travel concessions by travellers, and passengers travelling without tickets, passenger transportation has become more of an obligation for the Railways.Last year, the Bathinda railway station recorded Rs 15,73,96,996 as passenger earnings and Rs 28,74,73,358 as earnings from transporting goods. The figures show that the Railways is earning profit from freight transportation.The Railways offer travel concessions to various categories of travellers like physically-disabled, cancer patients, students, senior citizens, sportsperson, freedom fighters, etc. In most of the cases, the travel concessions are being misused by passengers.“While checking tickets, I once found a girl travelling on a ticket with concession for cancer patients, which is 50 per cent in the first AC and the second AC and 100 per cent in the third AC and the sleeper class. When I called the railway team of doctors, she immediately admitted that she was not a cancer patient," a TTE said.Mahesh Thakur, Commercial inspector of the Railways, said, "There are people who misuse the concessions provided to them. We have come across many cases but we cannot challenge them as they support their claims with medical certificates.”He added, “Once I came across a person with a severed thumb. He and his co-passenger were travelling at a concession of 75 per cent, each. He had a medical certificate due to which I could not take action against him.”There are a total of 50 types of concessions for passengers from different sections of the society. The concessions vary from 25 per cent to 100 per cent, depending upon the category that a passenger falls in.About 15 kinds of concessions are there only for patients and those accompanying them.Orthopaedically-handicapped/paraplegic persons, differently-abled and visually-impaired persons and those accompanying them are given 50 per cent concession in the first AC and the second AC travel.Thalassemia patients, heart patients, kidney patients, TB/Lupus Vulgaris patients, non-infectious leprosy patients and haemophilia patients are given 75 per cent concession while AIDS, sickle cell anaemia patients are given 50 per cent concession for travelling in sleeper class.As many as 250 persons were fined in January for travelling without tickets.