Quota: The Indian Railways has won a way for a man who fought for five years to get his 35 rupees back. Now about 2.98 lakh railway users have benefited along with him.
Sujit Swamy hails from Kota in Rajasthan. An engineer, he has been fighting for the last five years on behalf of the railway department for the 35 rupees he owes, with the support of the Right to Information Act. Now he has got the benefit of it. His solo effort has now benefited 2.98 lakh IRCTC users. Let’s look at his struggle in detail.
What happened? Swamy has booked a ticket for the Golden Temple Mail train to travel by train from Golda, where he lives, to the capital Delhi on July 2, 2017. The price of that ticket is 765 rupees. He has canceled the ticket because his ticket was on the waiting list for long days. The Railways has given him back 665 rupees. Out of the total amount of 765 rupees, 65 rupees has been deducted as a fee for cancellation of a ticket. It has been 35 rupees service wise favorite to go. The Goods and Services Tax (GST) came into force in India on July 1, 2017. But he had canceled his ticket before that. Yet he is shocked to see that the service tax has been levied.
RTI Struggle: Usually Indians who are shocked to see such incidents will leave it as it is at some point and move on. But he did not want to give up that 35 rupees. He started the struggle through the Right to Information Act (RTI) asking for the amount he owed. Swamy has filed RTI application fifty times in five years.
“It has been a long struggle. I have filed RTI fifty times. I have written letters to various places like Railways, IRCTC, Ministry of Finance, Service Tax Department. I have done that and I have demanded in a tweet that I have 35 rupees to join, ”says Swamy.
The IRCTC said in a circular that tickets booked before the GST will come into effect until the service is canceled after the GST comes into effect. In response to the RTI, the IRCTC had said that there would be no service tax if the ticket was canceled before July 1, 2017. The IRCTC also said that 35 rupees would be given to Swami later.
Accordingly, by May 1, 2019, 33 rupees had been returned to Swami’s bank account. This time a service tax of 2 rupees has been levied on that 35 rupees. Swami is reluctant to give up his 2 rupees again. He is in the process of filing an RTI for the same.
Either way he got the benefit of it last Friday. Responding to his RTI application, a senior IRCTC official said that the Railway Board had decided to refund Rs 35 per head to about 2.98 lakh users. A total of Rs 2.43 crore is now being refunded to users. Of this, 2 rupees owed to Swami was credited to his bank account last Saturday. He has confirmed this.
“I have received the full 35 rupees I need to join. I am satisfied with that. For this five year struggle of mine, 100 rupees per annum has come to my bank account at the rate of 500 rupees. I am happy, “said Swami.
I have donated little amount to #PMCARES funds
Thank you @narendramodi ji…@PMOIndia pic.twitter.com/JITcqCc1CO— Sujeet Swami️ (@shibbu87) May 30, 2022