Ground Reality - Rail station Wheelchair assistance

[Vaishnavi Jayakumar (Inclusive India)]

Just tagged Adv Rungta on this matter since he is amicus in the Delhi High Court PIL which Justice Gita Mittal had taken up suo motu and had addressed this issue.

[02/01, 10:21] Vaishnavi Jayakumar: ‼️@⁨S. K. Rungta⁩  - for your immediate intervention as amicus in the Delhi High Court railway PIL. 

The wheelchair charges issue I remember you had specifically addressed.

Please update us with current status of PIL, seemingly the only one which has managed to get Railways to court on this matter.

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/nizamuddin-stn-porter-charges-10k-for-wheelchair-assistance/articleshow/116863155.cms

Nizamuddin station porter charges Rs 10,000 for wheelchair assistance

Abhinav Rajput 

Jan 2, 2025

An elderly man in a wheelchair was charged Rs 10,000 by a porter at Hazrat Nizamuddin station, which should have been free or for a nominal fee. After the family reported the incident, the porter was identified, and Rs 9,000 was returned to them. The porter's badge was revoked by railway authorities, emphasizing their zero-tolerance policy for misconduct.

NEW DELHI: A porter at Hazrat Nizamuddin railway station charged Rs 10,000 to assist an elderly man in a wheelchair to the platform. The railways, after investigating the matter, made the porter return Rs 9,000 to the senior citizen's family and took away the porter's badge.

Payal, the woman who reported the matter, is the daughter of the elderly passenger. Originally from Gujarat, Payal resides in London with her husband Samuel and her parents, Ritesh and Sandhya.

She arrived in Delhi on Dec 21 with her family.

"After staying in Delhi for a few days, they planned a trip to Agra. On Dec 28, they reached Hazrat Nizamuddin station. The porter charged the family Rs 10,000 for assisting Payal's father with a wheelchair," a senior railway official said.

Upon reaching Agra, the family hired a taxi to see the Taj Mahal and other tourist sites. 

During this time, Payal told Anil Sharma, the secretary of the Prepaid Auto Taxi Drivers' Union, about the exorbitant amount that the porter had charged for the wheelchair service. Sharma told her that wheelchair assistance at railway stations is free of cost. Porters may charge a nominal fee for their labour, he said.

Payal and her husband contacted the GRP at Agra Cantt station. The force there coordinated with their counterparts in Nizamuddin GRP to investigate the matter. The porter was identified through CCTV footage. Rs 9,000 was transferred back to the family, the railway official said. The divisional railway manager of Delhi also took away the porter's badge.

The railway administration prioritises passenger welfare and will not tolerate such incidents, adhering to a zero-tolerance policy for such misconduct, Northern Railway said later.

Expressing regret over the incident, the DRM of the Delhi division said that the railways is committed to providing safe and convenient travel to passengers. Such incidents tarnish the railways' image and weakens passenger trust. He assured that strict action would be taken against people found guilty in similar cases. "The railway administration appeals to all passengers to immediately contact the railway helpline number if they encounter any issues during their journey," he said.