Dear Pranay, Sometime earllier I had written to the IRCTC, which looks after the online railway reservation about the inaccessiblity/denial of equal opportunity to all disabled persons. Though some members have already pointed this out, I am pasting below my letter and their reply. They did not however answer all my points. I along with some others have been contemplating writing a complaint to the CCPD regarding this. Hope this text helps you in your confrontation! with railways. -- My letter
To whom it may concern: Subject: Inaccessibility of the online PRS system for the disabled I wish to draw your attention to the fact that persons with disabilities who are entitled to concessional travel in Indian Railways are not able to use the online reservation system provided by your website. This is because as of now for booking concessional tickets, disabled persons are required to produce their Railways Concession Certificate which is also a proof of their physical disability at the ticket counters. Although your website allows issue of concessional tickets to senior citizens subject to their producing age proof during travel, no similar arrangement has been worked out for the disabled. The internet based railways reservation system can greatly benefit people with disabilities as they generally find it difficult to travel to the ticket booking centres due to the inaccessibility of the transport system and buildings. But for this you have to allow them to book tickets online. This can definitely be worked out as already done for senior citizens. Any of the following arrangements can be made- 1. Disabled persons can book their tickets online where they are required to fill in the details of their concession certificate. The TTE can then verify the original concession certificate during travel. 2. The railways can start a registration of the concession certificates of the disabled. A disabled person on getting his railways concession certificate verified & registered could get a registration number from you which could be used while booking concessional tickets. I wish to make a presentation before the concerned authority in your organisation on this matter on behalf of The National Association for the Blind. Please provide me the contact details of the appropriate authority who could take a decision on this matter and give us an appointment at a time convenient to you. Prashant Ranjan Verma -- From IRCTC Dear Mr.Varma, Thanks for your suggestion. The facility of booking no concessions not available on online Reservation System except Sr.Citizens are allowed 30% concession. For other concessions the letter of Authority is to be verified and after issue of tkt the Concession letter has to be submitted to Accounts deptt.and Audit deptt. Hence no other Concession is allowed. The suggestion for verification and collection in train is not possible. Suppose a person has booked a tkt from Mumbai to travel upto Jammu. The TTE of northern Railway is working on the train and has colleted the oncession at New Delhi. The Accounts office Mumbai requires the Concession. How he will send the Concession? This is not possible at all to link all concessions and will lead to corruption. We regret for the same. Regards, Sehgal. To unsubscribe send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in
