States to collect rail fares: Govt in guidelines

NEWDELHI: State authorities shall collect fares after distributing tickets among stranded migrants and students who are boarding special trains to return to their hometowns, and hand over the amount to the Indian Railways, the railways ministry said in fresh guidelines on Sunday.

After allowing the running of the Shramik Special trains on Friday, the railways said it will charge sleeper class fares and an additional ~50 for one point-topoint journey, while it also added that states can coordinate and pay on passengers’ behalf.

The move to charge fares for these trains ferrying migrants --many of them have lost their jobs --- students and others stranded in different parts of the country due to the ongoing lockdown met with opposition.

Rajasthan deputy chief minister and state Congress president Sachin Pilot said the Centre should bear the expenses. “In such a situation, they should not be charged fares…” In a letter to Union railway minister Piyush Goyal, Maharashtra energy minister Nitin Raut demanded that the Centre bears the cost of transportation of migrants.

Criticising the Centre, Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Sitaram Yechury said: “It is very unfair that the entire responsibility has been shifted to the states... In Parliament, the government said it bore the entire cost of repatriating Indians stuck abroad. In the same manner the migrants should have been sent back.”

According to the fresh guidelines, the railways shall print train tickets to specified destinations on the basis of the number of passengers indicated by an originating state, and give the tickets to the local authority. “The local authority shall hand over the tickets to the passengers cleared by them and collect the ticket fare and hand over the total amount to the railways,” the guidelines said. The railways also said these trains were being run only for those who have been identified and allowed to travel by the states sending and receiving them, and not for the general public. The railways reserves the right to discontinue the special train operations if safety protocols are flouted, the ministry said.

“The originating state will inform the exact number of passengers travelling in a train, which should be 1200 (or at least 90%) considering the capacity…,” the guidelines said.

The guidelines also said local authorities will give food packets and drinking water to passengers at the originating station. The railways will provide one meal on the train for a journey of over 12 hours.