More powers to Railway AGMs to redress public grievances

New Delhi, Dec 19 (UNI) The Railway Ministry has decided to delegate more powers to AGMs to ensure that improvement in public amentities at railway stations is visible and complaints are minimal.

This was announced here today by Railway Board Chairman J P Batra at the Annual Conference of Additional General Managers to review the functioning of the Public Grievances Redressal Machinery.

Mr Batra, in his inaugural remarks, said the number of complaints during 2005-06 had gone up by 2.44 per cent as compared to the previous year.

The five major areas of concern, he pointed out, continued to be passenger booking, punctuality of trains, reservations in trains, improper behaviour of Railway staff and enquiry offices, besides cleanliness at Railway Stations and non-availability of bedrolls.

''Cleanliness at stations remains the topmost area of concern.

The Zonal Railways have been instructed to appoint Sanitary Inspectors in all A and B category Railway Stations,'' he said, adding that more attention was being paid to training of frontline staff in improving standards of behaviour with the passengers.

For better availability of train tickets, Mr Batra said the ministry had embarked on measures for proliferation of booking windows by appointing 'Grameen' (rural) and 'Jan Sadharan' booking agencies for tickets.

''Talks are going on with the Postal Department to issue tickets through post offices. This will be of immense help in reducing queues at booking counters,'' Mr Batra said.

Financial Commissioner R. Sivadasan, Member (Traffic) S.B. Ghosh Dastidar, Member (Electrical) Ramesh Chandra, Member (Staff) R.S.

Varshney and Member (Mechanical) R.K. Rao were present on the occasion.

The meeting was also attended by representatives from Directorate of Public Grievances, Cabinet Secretariat, Department of Pensioners and Pensioners Welfare and Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances.

Mr Dastidar impressed upon the AGMs to ensure cleanliness of railway stations at all costs and instructed them to complete works relating to passenger amenities by February next year.

He also emphasised the need to take preventive action to improve the quality of services relating to passenger interface.

As for catering services, Mr Dastidar asked the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) to ensure that grievances were properly addressed and action taken promptly.

He also advised the AGMs to give maximum information under the Right to Information Act.

Mr Chandra advised the AGMs to create a feeling among the passengers and other customers of Railways that it cared for them.

''This will go a long way in reducing the number of grievances,'' he said.

The representatives of Cabinet Secretariat and Department of Administrative Reforms&Public Grievances praised the efforts of Railways in prompt monitoring of cases. Regular coordination meetings of Public Grievances Redressal Officers had also helped in disposal of these complaints, they pointed out.

UNI SKS VD ND1712