Reason: my newly married son with his wife was travelling back to their work place in Bangalore in train no.16319 'Band Humsafar Express' from Trivandrum Kochuveli Railway station to Bangalore Whitefield Railway station in 3AC coach B1 and they were being harassed by the TTE in their coach B1. He was asking for a fine of Rs.4000 or a bribe of half that because my son and his wife did the gravest mistake of boarding the train from a station not shown as the boarding station!
To his bad luck, my son never carried much cash in his purse- he is from the new gen who believed the words of the Indian PM in letter and spirit. He likes doing all money transactions online using those Apps and cards! And the TTE had no facility to accept that either in black or white!
They had a valid and confirmed 3AC ticket reserved online (PNR-4503960607). Their ticket was from Kochuveli to Whitefield. Boarding was indicated from Chengannur, the station nearest to our home at Elanthoor and about 100 km north of Kochuveli.
In fact, I had made their return travel booking online using GoIbibo mobile app. We live in Elanthoor and the nearest railway station is Chengannur. My son's wife is from Trivandrum and Kochuveli is the nearest station from her house.
To be very frank, it was very difficult for us to confirm which station would be convenient for them to board the train because of this. During their stay in Kerala, they could be either in Trivandrum or at Elanthoor. If they are at Trivandrum, Kochuveli station is the best for boarding. If they happen to be at Elanthoor, Chengannur station is the best for boarding.
If I take the ticket booking from Chengannur to Whitefield and if they happen to be at Kochuveli, their travel practically becomes ticketless in the Kochuveli-Chengannur section. So I took the ticket from Kochuveli to Whitefield and gave the boarding from Chengannur. Going from my past memories, the railway people never made any issue for such an arrangement. And in the present days of online booking, I never ever happen to notice a facility for changing the boarding point later in any of the online Apps or the irctc website.
A day before their stay in Kerala, it was confirmed that they would be in Trivandrum and Kochuveli is their preferred boarding point. In a way that was convenient as it was the trains starting station.
My son was more informed than me and from Trivandrum he called me to make a change in their boarding station as it was me who did their ticket booking. First I tried to reason with my old man's logic in not doing so firstly because I did not know how to do it and secondly due to the user unfriendliness of the irctc site. Yet reluctantly I made an effort only to be informed that this kind of changes cannot be done if the time is less than 24 hours. I did not understand this logic of the Indian railways! And to be honest, one can never find full logic in several of the Indian rules and regulations!
I tried to reason with my son and tried to enhance his courage to travel with the online ticket that he had already passed on from my side. After all apparently they are not doing anything illegal as per our logic. We had paid the travel cost from Kochuveli to Whitefield and also all the other fees for reservation. The railways as a service provider did not charge any thing for change of boarding point. So we never imagined that this particular thing would be a point for a railway employee to harass the travelers travelling with ticket and reservation!
And that is where we made the grave mistake! The Indian government employees have this great talent of finding the minutest deviations in the rule books if it gives them an edge in making some quick money, both for their employer and for themselves!
To the bad luck of my son and his wife, the TTE did exactly that. He kept harassing them and in turn my son calling me for advise. Me and my wife lost our sleep in turn.
I advised my son to pay whatever the TTE is asking as penalty. My son informed that the TTE is asking to pay a fine of Rs.4000/- (incidentally the total fare from Trivandrum to Whitefield for the two of them in 3AC is only about Rs.3000/-) and he did not have the cash. Then he informed that the TTE agreed for a compromise of agreeing with half that if the money paid is without a receipt.
Dear reader, I felt so helpless and equally harassed as my son who was in the train in the night. My blood pressure went high and also of my wife. I felt this as a bigger harassment than the recent incident that happened to some young men in a Bangalore bound private bus from Kerala in one of the luxury buses operated by one Kallada Suresh!
There the physical misbehavior done by the bus staff to a few travelers got viral in the social media and the state government initiated actions against the erring staff and the bus operator.
But here, the harassment is being done by a central government employee with much powers delegated to him by the railway administration of India. They make rules and regulations to their advantage and hardly ever consider that they are also doing a transport service. The travelers in this case is availing a concession from the Indian government facility. What they say is the law of the land!
There is no way for the common man to know because of the arbitrariness of the Indian railway rules. What is the solution if a TTE is doing highhandedness like this to harass passengers quoting illogical rules supposedly existing to his support as made by his superiors?
To our great relief, by this time the train reached Chengannur and the TTE realizing that these people are not going to make any cash payments turned the plates. He allowed them to travel in accordance with their reservation.
My humble submission to the Railways is only this (if at all there exist anyone to hear and do the needful):
1. Consider Kerala as a metro area and allow outbound travelers from Kerala to cities like Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Delhi etc to board from any convenient station of their choice where the train has a stop, provided the ticket charges cover that station also.
2. Consider the full length of the ticket as reserved regardless of the boarding point.
3. Provide adequate training to the TTE to be logical in their approach with genuine reserved passengers and not to harass them to the extent that they are scared of Indian railways for life!
4. Do not make illogical rules, if they exist remove them and make it known to the travelling public.
5. Make the online reservation system logical and more user friendly. (For example: Why this irritating captcha always?)
6. Make arrangements to TTEs to accept payments for penalty, charge differences etc through approved online payment apps. Discourage all kinds of cash transactions in the train. This will help passengers to travel with less cash and more safely. It might also check TTEs accepting bribes!
I do not say the railway keep taking actions against the passenger unfriendly TTEs or staff always. But when they go irrational, it reflects on the railways and also on the government. If the railway superiors realize that well and good.
If not what we can do? Nothing. After all Indian railway is part of the Indian government and government in India has not yet grown to serve the people. Many in it think they are masters of the public.
If the Indian railway take any positive action from this citizen feedback, we can consider that as real positive act towards good governance!
