CHENNAI: An activist is moving the Supreme Court seeking online booking facilities for the disabled, similar to those allowed to senior citizens.
Presently, the disabled have to book tickets from reservation counters to avail the 75 per cent concession extended to them.
“Normal people only need to worry about the crowd at the reservation counters. But for a disabled person, the difficulty in reserving a ticket starts from the time he steps out of his house to reach these reservation counters. The convenience of booking tickets at the click of the mouse should be extended to the disabled first. This is a violation of Persons With Disability (PWD) Act, 1995,” said C Govindakrishnan, founder, Nethrodaya.
A visually-challenged person himself, Govindakrishnan argued that not much effort is needed on the part of Indian Railways to enable online booking for the disabled. “When the senior citizens can book concession tickets online and prove their identity by carrying a proof at the time of journey, why not same can be followed in the case of the disabled?” he asked.
“We are going to file a public interest litigation petition in Supreme Court very soon seeking to extend such online booking facilities for the disabled. This is to remind officials that government services should be equal for all. Such efforts should come from the central government organisations first,” he added.