The Railway Budget was merged with the General Budget in 2017 by ModiSarkar. That was the door that opened to a lot of scams, destroying transparency, covered up corruption and implemented wanton loot-fares and changes that kept the public in the dark. No one gets to know what new trains are being introduced or what changes in fares were happening unless PM Narendra Modi flagged off trains. Some routes and trains (like Tejas Express) were also hived off to private companies without much knowledge to the public (although the idea itself may not be bad).
The scams got bigger under the cover of Covid after March 2020. The Railways changed the numbers of trains by removing the first digit and prefixing all trains with a “0” and calling them “Special trains”. The fares were hiked dramatically for no reason or rhyme whatsoever. In Sleeper Class and 3AC the fares were hiked claiming the middle berth was kept vacant for social distancing. Only a moron would imagine that instead of 8 berths, reducing it to 6 would create social distancing when the train itself would be packed with 54 berths with other wanton thugs and “unreserved” passengers anyway crowding the coaches. This went on for almost over a year till I ran a whole thread on this scam:
As the Covid problems eased in early 2021, the middle berths and seats were restored and tickets were being sold. However, the fares were not proportionally reduced. Because of the rush to travel and lower availability of seats/berths no one bothered to notice or complain about this scam. The fares of Superfast AC trains were also increased although food and linen services were completely dropped. What was the purpose of such a scheme? Only for Modi to loot the middle class for his stupid Soshit, Vanchit, Peedit nonsense:
After I raised these issues on Twitter, a BJP footsie magazine carried the same issues of railway fares loot. Not one Opposition party or mainstream coolie media ever raised this issue or pointed to this scam. A few days after these scams were exposed, the govt grandly announced the fares would be restored to pre-Covid days. But did they actually do so? Not really! There was just a token reduction in some fares but others continued as they were without any change. In fact, the dynamic fares and premium Tatkal fares got even worse. For a 3AC ticket with normal fare of 1800/- I once paid a premium Tatkal fare of 3000/- Thus, the Railways is not only a scamster but also a black marketeer:
It has to take jerks like Modi and Vaishnaw to claim higher fares were introduced to discourage people from avoidable travels. Where do these jerks get their thinking from? Even if people avoided travels due to Covid, there is always a huge rush for train tickets and the number of travellers does not go down. The sleeper coaches and unreserved coaches are packed like sardines any given day. This image of a reserved sleeper coach crowded with encroachers is a normal scene on most of the trains in India. It’s a horror that the govt covers up with lipstick nonsense of Modi flagging off luxury trains:
The reserved sleeper coach becomes an absolute fish market, especially if it’s day travel and all kinds of thugs, wanton encroachers, season ticket holders crowd the coaches like pigs in a barn. In short, in a coach for 72 passengers you could have as many as 200 people crowding the coach. So, where is the damn question of losing on fares when your train is running way beyond capacity at all times?
When you are busy looting and scamming people for your worthless doles, you are naturally going to compromise on safety, comfort and timeliness – the 3 things passengers want the most. This thread on Twitter lists the number of close shaves that Railways have had and accidents have been averted either by luck or by the presence of mind of the loco pilot. Safety cannot be left to luck and chance as GOI and Railways are doing. This tweet narrates the pathetic conditions in which sleeper class passengers have to travel with zero security and zero comfort. This video is from the same Coramandel Express that met with the tragedy at Balasore in Odisha.
There is corruption in Railways. There is incompetence. There is covering up of all these by Modi as he does with all other failures with – LIPSTICK. Time and again Modi launches the same Vande Bharat to give you the optical delusion that India has entered some fantasy island under his ministership. This worthless optical activity with a fancy train for the rich is to delude you into believing that India and Railways are going great guns whereas in reality train travel is still a horror for ordinary people. Citizens rightly mocked Modi for not immediately reacting to the Odisha tragedy because he acts like a station master flagging off trains so frequently.
Modi cancelled another Vande Bharat flagging off scheduled for June 4 after the Odisha crash. He then called for some grand high level meeting with a video presentation on the accident. Not satisfied that he had applied enough lipstick to show he is concerned, he then rushed to Balasore to do his PR work in the face of a tragedy. And, not to be left behind, Modi’s usual castard-coolies also spare no effort in applying more lipstick on him as this pathetic lout Pradhan does:
Accidents happen! The best of systems may sometimes see an accident. Sometimes it happens by an Act of God as they say in legal terms. But the Railways and Modi are culpable of criminal negligence, wanton loot of ordinary folks in fares, criminal condition of the travel in sleeper coaches and total negligence of safety measures. This is good enough reason to throw out Modi and his gang. Lipstick does not save people from the criminality of Railways. There is no transparency in the operations of Railways, the IRCTC site is nothing short of pathetic avarice with endless pop-ups. I guess, like with the everything in India, the Railways has also been running on “Ram Bharose” and may be pray each time before you board a train as the migrant worker is doing in the pic.
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