Some TTEs (Travelling Ticket Examiners) are inconveniencing reserved passengers to satisfy the whims and fancies of influential persons, who seem to be insisting on allotment of berths of their choice, says N. Dhanapalan, president of the Visakhapatnam Malyalees Association, who travelled by the 18568 Kollam-Visakhapatnam express along with his family members on Dec 30.
“We boarded the train at Kollam and were allotted berth 2 and 4, 34 and 36 (all upper berths) though berths 31, 32 and 35 were vacant. We, however, occupied the berths originally allotted to us. On the afternoon of Dec 31, the train reached Renigunta and berth no. 33 also became vacant as the maximum number of side berths became vacant,” says Mr. Dhanapalan, who is also a Divisional Railway Users’ Consultative Committee (DRUCC) member of Waltair Division.
A TTE came at Renigunta and suggested that we shift to berth no.’s 31, 32 and 33 for our convenience. When the train reached Vijayawada, a new TTE, who introduced himself as Ch. Ravichandra, took charge and came to us and asked us to change to berth no.’s 9,10, 11 and 12 to accommodate four other persons.
“The names of these passengers were not in the chart but the TTE insisted on our shifting to the new berths. I told the TTE that I am DRUCC Member but he did not care and we had to shift our luggage to the new berths. TTE s inconveniencing reserved passengers for influential persons, whose names didn’t even figure in the chart is highly objectionable,” he says.
“I have brought the issue to the notice of DRM Chandralekha Mukherjee,” Mr. Dhanapalan said.
(Reporting By B. Madhu Gopal)
