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Issued in Public Interest and to create awareness about fair travelling practices in trains.
You might have traveled a lot by train. Some of you might have stood in line and fought with others to get a seat in the general compartment, some were happy travelling in the Second Class while other enjoyed the “luxurious” services of the air conditioned coaches of our railways. Some might even argue “there are millions of people travelling daily, nothing will happen if I don’t buy a ticket” and often manage to reach their destination without being fined.
If you are one of hundreds of people who travel ticket-less or travel in wrong classes, its high time you stop this and get yourself on the right track. That day is not far when you would be caught and fined heavily for traveling ticket less or in the wrong compartment.
Wondering why am I suddenly talking about all this ? Well, it was last month while I was traveling on the Hyderabad MMTS from Fatehnagar to Secunderabad. I took a ticket and reached the platform, the train arrived and it was heavily crowded. Was wondering where to get in. Saw a bit of room in the compartment on my right and quickly got onto it. The train chugged its way through and reached Begumpet. Many got down and many got in.
Among the one who got in were two guys dressed in white shirt and black pants with white sport shoes. Soon the train started to move. A while later both of them started asking for tickets – yes you’re right they were the TTE or Train Ticket Examiner. Hmm…you would wonder what were they doing in a local train. Lot or murmuring started among the passengers as there way many who were travelling without tickets and were being fined. One of them walked upto me and asked for the ticket, I gave him.
He examined and asked “Enta idi ?” (What’s this in Telugu) and I was like “Idi Ticket, Aima-endi ?” (this is the ticket, what happened) He replied something in Telugu which I didn’t understand and asked him to talk in English or Hindi. He then told in Hindi, “Yeh ticket general class ka hai, aur app first class ke dibbe mein hain…” (This ticket is for general class and you are currently in the First Class coach” And I was like Hmmm…Okay… So what next ? He wasted no time and took out his bill book and slapped a fine for 350 Rs. for travelling in the wrong compartment ! Whoa,a journey that would have costed Rs 5, now costed Rs 355 !! Probably the first time ever I’ve been fined. Well, this sure was a lesson learnt, from that day onward, I took my time and got in the correct coach for which I had purchased the ticket.
So folks, next time around if you are thinking to sneak-in without a ticket or getting in the wrong compartment, be ready to face the consequences.
