Railways Will Accept Digital Aadhaar As ID Proof; Tamil Rail Users Complain Of Hindi Imposition!

Indian Railways has decided that from now on, they will accept soft copies of ID proof, such as Aadhaar and other documents. But there is a catch here.

We will soon share the exact terms and conditions of this new relaxation in rules.

Meanwhile, a section of rail passengers from Tamil Nadu have opposed Hindi imposition on them. What made them angry?

Read on to find more!

Digital ID Proofs Now Acceptable in Trains

This scenario is pretty common: You have booked your train tickets via IRCTC website and this means that you will need to physically show your ID proof to the ticket checker.

However, you are afraid that you may lose the ID, if you carry it while travelling.

A big mess.

Now, no more!

Railways have announced that from now on, passengers can carry their soft copies of ID proof, and it would be perfectly fine to show it to the TTE.

However, the softcopies of your ID proof must be uploaded in the DigiLocker app of Govt of India, which was launched in 2016 for the same purpose: To digitally store your documents.

The catch here is: The TTE will only approve the ID proofs, if they are uploaded by the user of the DigiLocker, and is located in ‘My Uploads’ section.

The order from Indian Railways said: “If a passenger shows Aadhaar or driving licence from the ‘issued documents’ section by logging into his DigiLocker account, the same should be considered as valid proof of identity,”

This is a big welcome move by Railways, which justifies the #DigitalIndia move.

Now, say goodbye to physical, and actual Aadhaar and other ID proofs, and say yes to Digital copies!

Hindi Is Being Imposed On Rail Users?

Meanwhile, in an interesting development, a section of Rail users from Tamil Nadu have claimed that in the newly relaunched IRCTC.co.in website, Railways is imposing the use of Hindi on them.

Kanyakumari District Railway Users’ Association (KKDRUA) released a statement, which said, “We found a lot of Hindi imposition in your IRCTC English version web site service. If we type travel source and destination it is coming Hindi first then English. Already full Hindi version website is available. Why imposed Hindi script in English version website. The Hindi speaking people will book the ticket from Hindi version website.(sic)”

As per these rail users from Kanyakumari, Official Language Act 1976 is not applicable to Tamil Nadu.

In fact, they have written to Railways regarding an exclusive Tamil language website, which will only names and railway stations written in Tamil.

The Association said, “Imposing Hindi is against Linguistic equality and consumer rights.”

There has been no reaction from the Railways as of now. We will keep you updated, as we receive more inputs.

Image Source

Related: Link IRCTC Account With Aadhaar To Win Rs 10,000