To,
The Regional Manager, 15th March
East Coast Railways,
Bhubaneswar
Indian Rail
Dear Sir / Madam,
I wish to bring to your notice (something I suppose you already know) the way corruption has become a way of life in Indian Railways.
The other day (13/03/10) I was traveling with my brother from Bhubaneswar to Tatanagar. It was a last minute decision so we had to board the train with a general ticket in the hope of getting it up-graded to a 3-tier AC seat.
I therefore spoke to the TTE (he wasn’t wearing a badge – none of them do nowdays, so I didn’t catch his name) who advised us to sit in a given seat and he would come later and do the paperwork.
He only came at 2am when I was half asleep and asked me to pay the extra fare (which was Rs.1248) which I did much to the TTE’s surprise as I hadn’t given him any extra. I wasn’t certain of how much to give him and looking at my hesitation he just left to come back a bit later to hand me my ticket.
It was only in the morning that I realized that he had only given me a ticket from Balasore to Tata (instead of Bhubaneswar to Tata) which cost Rs.848/- thereby keeping the Rs.400/- for himself. I just couldn’t believe in fact I was ashamed of the audacity and ease with which he cheated me and Indian Railways. (I do admit it was my fault not to have looked carefully at the ticket at 2am!)
I am aware of the special squads who do spot checks looking for people traveling without tickets but I think you should have a provision where you perform spot checks on TTE’s or even secret checks on them to improve the system and prevent Indian Railways a bad name.
I am not sure if anything will be done about it or as usual, it will fall in deaf ears. I am doing my bit to improve Indian railways and the country wherever I can. Now its your turn.
Thanking you.
Yours sincerely,
Dr. S.K.Ghosh
303 Acrux Park Estate,
Forest Park,
Bhubaneswar 751009
Email: [email protected]
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