Photo ID cards weed out fake beneficiaries

Visakhapatnam: The applications for concessions in the railway ticket fare under physical disability quota, has come down with the introduction of the photo ID card facility that is eliminating fake beneficiaries preventing revenue leakage. The unique number assigned to the identity card helps to get all the details of the person availing the concession from the database.

According to sources, the railway is targeting to make the railway issued photo ID cards mandatory for availing any sort of fare concession. Earlier, the beneficiaries needed to produce only photo copy of the disability certificate issued by a doctor at the time of booking ticket at the counter. However, many persons not eligible for the concessions were also availing the benefits producing false certificates, leading to huge revenue leakage.

However, the Waltair division has initiated the photo ID facility from last year to ensure that the ticket booking procedure does not hassle the differently-abled and check fake beneficiaries. The railway staff in cooperation with the district administration is verifying the certificates visiting the candidate’s residence and the doctors issuing the certificate before giving the photo ID card.

The Waltair division has received over 6,153 applications for photo ID card under disability quota, of which 3,000 have been granted and 1,370 disbursed. As many as 1,207 fake applications, such as candidates having handicap percentage below the required or unavailability of doctors issued the certificates during verification, have been rejected.

“We received about 4,000 applications for disability quota photo ID card from May to December 2015. However very few people are applying this year being aware about the strict verification policy. The railway is streamlining the concession process for giving easy access to its services and prevent revenue leakage which runs in crores,” said a railway official.

Mostly, the applications from Vizianagaram have piled up due to non-cooperation from doctors. The Waltair division has urged the district administration to cooperate in expediting of the verification of certificates so that the applicants do not face trouble.