At a time when instances surrounding fake IDs cards have become rampant, railway passenger associations have sought access to local trains and said they would stage a protest if this demand isn’t met. They have written a letter to the state government as well. However, they claim that no one is willing to accept their letter at Mantralaya.
The railway passenger associations claim that people working in private offices as well as labourers working in the manufacturing sector do not have access to local trains. Many of these people reside far off, like Kalyan, Karjat, Kasara, Vasai, Virar and Dahanu.
"We went to submit the letter at Mantralaya, but we weren't allowed inside. We want the state government to discuss the issue of allowing more categories of people to commute by trains. People are forced to travel using fake IDs," said Nandkumar Deshmukh, president, Upnagriya Rail Pravasi Sanghatan.
From February till June 28 on the Western Railway (WR), the authorities caught 60,090 people from whom fines amounting to Rs 1.78 crore was realised. The situation on the Central Railway (CR) is grimmer; from April to June 24, they recovered Rs 3.31 crore from 92,163 cases.
Passenger associations have also demanded that women be allowed to commute in local trains. "There is a need to allow people who have been administered both the doses to travel in local trains," said N Sayyed, member of this rail passenger association.
The railway employees on field claim that they are tired of so many cases of fake ID cards. As per the figures, since April, there have been well over 3,500 cases where people have been caught travelling using fake ID cards and violating the Disaster Management Act. There are over 1.50 lakh people who travelled without tickets on CR and WR.
