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Last week I happened to see an advertisement that made me sit up. The North Central Railway issued it, or to be more specific, the Vigilance Organisation of the North Central Railway and it exhorted passengers to raise their voice against railway staff indulging in corrupt practices and "unjust acts". "Kindly help the NC Rly in (its) crusade against any harassment by railway staff by giving online information about their unjust acts!" said the blurb. It then went on "Kindly travel with proper travelling authority and identification papers, question the railway employees for asking more money than the authorised due charges and report immediately about misbehaviour and forcible charging". That was not all. "Kindly contact us from your mobile or any other means on any of the following numbers" the ad said and gave four telephone numbers and the names of vigilance inspectors. "Acting on your information, all best efforts will be made to enquire into the malpractices and your journey will be made hassle free," the advertisement further promised. It ended with two slogans: "Committed to provide transparent services" and "Serving customers with a smile". The ad copy was bad; I could manage to get through to only one telephone number after repeated efforts and of course the ad failed to give the website or the e-mail ID on which one could pass on information online. But despite all that, one could appreciate the good intentions behind the large advertisement. In fact the inspector that I managed to talk to, straight away asked me whether I was on board the Indian Railways or on the platform. He wanted to know what my complaint was and said the vigilance was trying to gather information about misdeeds by the railway staff. The railways of course need to do much more. They must actually provide 24-hour toll-free numbers on which any passenger can call and complain for quick redress. In fact, consumers will only complain if they are assured of being heard. And of action being taken on those complaints. This could eventually bring about an attitudinal change in the railway staff. One hopes that this is the beginning of an earnest campaign to rid the railways of corrupt staff. And also those employees who do not respect passengers’ rights and misbehave with them. Take the Travelling Ticket Examiner or the TTE as he is commonly referred to. He is the face of the largest public utility in the country. But unfortunately, the image of the TTE does not reflect the railways’ recently declared motto: "Serving consumers with a smile". In fact, if anything, the word TTE brings to mind the picture of someone out to harass you, to make a fast buck out of you. Some of the complaints of consumers filed before the consumer courts only magnify this image. Take the case of 64-year old Shipra Sengupta, decided by the apex consumer court some months ago. On the ground that she did not show "valid proof of age," Ms Sengupta, who had travelled from Kolkata to Chennai for an eye treatment, was detained overnight at Chennai Central Station by a railway employee and asked to pay a penalty. In response to her complaint, the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission had come down heavily on the railways for the way a senior citizen had been treated. Observing that this was a classic case of highhandedness on the part of a government servant, the Commission had said that behaviour such as this could well defeat the very purpose of schemes such as the ones given by the railways to senior citizens. This was therefore a fit case for awarding exemplary damages in condemnation of the abuse of power by a government servant, the Commission had said, while awarding her Rs 25,000 (Transfer petition no 4 of 2004, decided in January 2006) Similarly, there have been other cases such as that of the Pohares who were forced by the TTE, during their journey from Kurla to Ankola , to detrain and spend a sleepless night at some obscure railway station only because they dared to protest over unhygienic conditions in the train toilet and demanded that it be cleaned. Another such case was that of Jayarama Shastrigal, who was humiliated and thrown out of the train by the TTE, despite possessing a valid ticket. In all these cases, while awarding compensation to the victims, the consumer courts have been highly critical of the attitude of the railway staff. Hopefully, incidents such as this will soon become a thing of the past and we will have railway staff who really serve passengers with a smile and an honest attitude. |
