‘Set up panel to resolve train travel issue’

MUMBAI: The Bombay high court (HC) has directed the state to form a committee to look into and resolve the issues related to train travel and also asked the government to find a solution to verify and permit fully vaccinated persons to travel on local trains. The court made the observation while hearing a bunch of public interest litigation (PILs) filed by lawyer groups and Marathi Patrakar Sangh representing media persons seeking access to local trains to fully vaccinated persons. While observing that it was imperative for all to earn a livelihood, in light of the commuting constraints that are peculiar to Mumbai compared to other cities in the state, the HC said there was a need for solutions specific to Mumbai. The court asked the state to come up with a solution for train travel within a week.

The bench, while referring to the interview of Dr Shashank Joshi in Hindustan Times on the problems of train travel and commuting during Covid, noted that the doctor had said that verifying whether an aspiring commuter was fully vaccinated was a cumbersome job and told advocate general Ashutosh Kumbhakoni that “if it is cumbersome find a solution. Form an expert committee to resolve the issue”. In response, Kumbhakoni pointed to the note of caution by Dr Joshi wherein he has stated that train travel should not be allowed unless 70% of the population was fully vaccinated and said that the travel permissions for lawyers and their office staff were almost worked out. A division bench of chief justice Dipankar Datta and justice Girish Kulkarni

was informed that only essential service providers and government employees were currently allowed to travel by local trains. The rest of the population had to travel by buses, which was inconvenient and time-consuming.

In the earlier hearing the court had suggested that the state should work with the railways to set up a dedicated counter to verify vaccination certificates of fully immunized persons and then issue them a separate identity card and monthly, quarterly or six monthly passes. The advocate for the Marathi Patrakar Sangh informed the court that journalists had to be on ground zero to report facts and should be considered as frontline workers. He submitted that nearly 140 journalists had lost their lives during the pandemic and their families deserved to be compensated as well. After hearing the submissions, the court observed, “Travelling by train is essential for people in Mumbai as bus charges are very high. We can say this is a city with special needs and is comparable to Calcutta or Delhi. Every time something is required, there are PILs. Why not have an administrative committee to look into such issues. These are important issues which touch the livelihood of people. If the administrative machinery is geared up to look into these issues, everything would be fine.”

The court then expressed hope that the state would come up with a solution to the problem of train travel by August 15 so that “everyone could get freedom from the issue” and posted the PILs for hearing next week.