Para-athlete Suvarna Raj forced to spend night on floor, Suresh Prabhu orders inquiry

Railway minister Suresh Prabhu has ordered an inquiry into the way medal-winning para-athlete Suvarna Raj was treated on a Nagpur-Nizamuddin Garib Rath express. The 34-year-old wheelchair-bound athlete was allegedly denied a berth convenient for people with disabilities and was forced to sleep on train.

Raj however said that she wants to meet Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu and tell him about the problems differently-abled people have to face while traveling in trains. 

Raj, who suffers from 90% disability as a result of polio infection, said that she had boarded the Nagpur-New Delhi Garib Rath Express at 8:45 PM on Saturday. 

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She claimed that she was allotted an upper berth and had requested the Train Ticket Examiner (TTE) multiple times for change of berth, but got no response from him.

In the end, she had no other option than to spend the whole night on the floor.Suvarna Raj had won two medals at the Thailand Para Table Tennis Open 2013 and participated in the Asian Para Games in South Korea.

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At present, Raj runs an organisation for the disabled people. She is also working on ‘Accessible India Campaign’, a campaign by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment for achieving worldwide accessibility for those who are disabled.