Effect of the latest order from railways!! - Suburban train commuters in Chennai are doing this now!
Posted on: 11/Jan/2022 9:44:22 AM
If not administered with 2 doses of Covid-19 vaccination, then you are not allowed to travel in the suburban trains in Chennai!! So what do the passengers do?
They use other modes of transport to reach their destinations in Chennai.
On Monday, thousands of passengers of suburban trains were denied tickets to travel in the trains. These passengers were forced to take other modes of transport like bus, autos, cabs etc. Monday is the first day after the railways have brought a new rule that those who haven�t received 2 doses of vaccination would not be allowed to travel i the suburban trains in Chennai.
Point to be taken into note here is that those persons who haven�t got 2 doses of vaccination cannot be penalized and there is no law available now. Therefore, the railways department has denied tickets to those who haven�t received 2 doses of vaccination.
In the UTS app, e-ticketing facility has been disabled and for those who submitted certificates regarding administered with 2 vaccine doses tickets were issued at the counters. It is learnt that those persons who had valid season tickets but without 2 doses of vaccination were also permitted to travel.
From 5 am in the morning, people started arriving at the ticket counters in the railway stations belonging to places like Chennai suburban terminal, Tambaram, Chengalpet, Arakkonam, Ponneri, Tiruttani and Thiruvallur etc. There were long serpentine queues at the ticket counters.
There were some arguments at some railway stations between the passengers and RPF/GRP as they tried to prevent the entry of seasoned ticket holders. The railway officials later stated that those with valid season tickets would be able to travel in the suburban trains even without producing certificates.
A regular commuter spoke about how there was no legal provision available to penalize the unvaccinated commuters. He added that by denying tickets the railways department is creating a reason to penalize the unvaccinated for ticketless travel. Point is that no passenger could be fined without the approval from the railway board. In Chennai, about 11.5lakh commuters travel by suburban trains every day in more than 630 suburban trains.
