How does it feel if you are abused or threatened 80 per cent of the time you are doing your job. And that too at the hands of total strangers? Well, this is an aspect of daily life for Travel Ticket Examiners (TTEs) of the Bangalore division of South Western Railway.
A checking squad comprising 34 TTEs (including 4 women) and 17 Railway Police Force men took this Metrolife reporter along during an `ambush’ they conducted on Thursday. The check was carried out on five trains as well as stations enroute City Station to Whitefield. What we witnessed is definitely worth sharing.
The first halt our tempo traveller made was at an unscheduled stopping. The Marikuppam–Bangalore Passenger was halted midway at a location between Devangundi and Whitefield by the train driver who was given advance intimation of the check by the Railway control room. RPF and TTEs, who lined up on either side of the tracks before the stoppage, rushed in. In this less than two-minute raid, a few were fined for ticketless travel while nearly 25 travellers jumped out of the trains and ran for their lives!
The next point was the Krishnarajapuram station where a considerable number were booked for not having platform tickets. The attempts by a few to cheat when caught redhanded were quite a surprise, like in this instance. A car driver had ventured inside the station to see off someone without a platform ticket. When caught (around 9 am) by the TTE, he said he had purchased the ticket and it was with his owner whom he called up on his mobile. That well-dressed owner landed sometime later and started shouting at the TTE in English for detaining his driver.
As if flashing a trump card, he triumphantly pulled out a platform ticket from his pocket and insisted that it was the ticket of his driver. The sharp TTE, exposed his act by pointing out that the timing on the computerised ticket said 9.15 a m and the driver was detained much before the ticket was purchased. Following which, the owner conceded he was guilty and paid the fine of Rs 250 and the Rs 3 ticket charge.
Another English-speaking individual was caught for not purchasing a plaftform ticket. He threatened a TTE that he would like to talk to his boss. When told that the boss was around and he could approach him right away, he demanded to know the boss of that boss. When given that information also, he ordered the TTE to show him his identity card and copied details from it on his mobile and left angrily. “This is clear intimidation and an attempt to frighten the TTE just for doing his duty. This is done even when many of us are present,” an RPF officer pointed out. There were angry as well as humorous exchanges between the TTEs and offenders. Some tongue-in-check responses from ticketless passengers ran thus: “I have not bought tickets since the day Lalu Prasad took over as the Railways minister. So, why are you expecting me to buy it now,” said an offender from Bihar; “I really don’t have the money to pay the fine, here is the Rs 100 I have, keep this,” said a labourer; Oh! come on, let me go. What big offence have I done, wanted to rush to work and had no time to buy tickets,” remarked a BPO employee.
C Kaviarasan, an assistant checking inspector with the RPF reasoned with offenders thus: “Will you allow anyone to enter your house without your permission. It is the same here. This is our house and the ticket gives permission for you to step inside.”
Elaborating on the occupational hazards, Jayaram, one of the chief ticket inspectors said, “Sometimes, the TTEs are pushed out of the trains when a mob gets together. Two of our men are thus permanently handicapped.
The Mysore–Bangalore and Bangarpet–Bangalore sections are notorious for such mobs. Again, in the rush to embark or disembark the trains, four TTEs have fallen near the tracks and have lost their hearing capacity because of exposure to the train sound at such close quarters. There must definitely be some kind of walkie talkie provided to the staff so that they can interact with their colleagues in the face of danger, he added.
Abuse of authority
This is definitely not to say that all the RPF and TTEs are all carrying out their job in an ideal fashion as they have their share of black sheep. One TTE, Ravi Kumar, was seen forcefully stamping the feet of an offender seated on the floor with his heavy boots and abusing him just because the man claimed to know him.
He was cleverly taken away from the spot by a top RPF official who made him understand that the press was watching! A couple of RPF personnel at Krishnarajapuram station were seen hitting the ticketless and also dragging them by their hair to make them sit.
Total earnings
The six-hour check began at 630 am and wound up at 12.30 pm. Among the trains checked included Marikuppam–Bangalore Passenger, Bangalore–Chennai Passenger and Bangar-pet–Bangalore Passenger.
Altogether 66 ticketless passengers were booked and a fine amount of Rs 25,095 collected, said George P I , Chief Ticket Inspector, Bangalore division, South Western Railway, who led the squad. Habitual offenders fall in 20–25 age bracket and belong to the labour class category, he added.
Technology helps
Here’s a novel way the mobile phone is put to use by ticketless Bangaloreans who travel regularly by trains—an sms or a call cautioning a friend or relative travelling without ticket to disembark immediately when a squad enters a train. And many offenders make good their escape this way.
Women TTEs
How are women examiners coping up with an uruly bunch like the habitual ticket offenders? “While a section of passengers are very appreciative of the fact that women are in this profession, many hurl abuses at us when we ask them to produce a ticket,” says Savitha, a TTE. Her colleague Bindu says, “There must be information released to the public through the papers that the fine for nonproduction of ticket is Rs 250 plus the actual journey cost. The fixed penalty of Rs 250 enrages many.” Deputy Chief Inspector Rama Hansda says, “The funny thing is that many believe the money is going into our pockets!”
Onerous task
A railway source said the pressure on Travelling Ticket Examiners (TTEs) is quite huge as each one is fixed a monthly target of collecting a little over Rs 23,000. The fixed target only keeps increasing with the succeeding months. While the target for the previous financial year was Rs 2.21 crore, it has been fixed at Rs 3 crore for the present financial year. “A lamentable aspect is that the number of TTEs is totally disproportionate to the increase in passenger traffic each day,” he added.
