- I Paid A Bribe
- 12 years ago
- 787 views
Life in a Metro Rail
- Railways
- Traveling without Ticket
- Paid INR 10
Dear Sir, I am a resident of South Kolkata. Recently,- I was travelling in the Metro Railway of Kolkata due to my sudden requirement. It was the 6th day of May,-20009. I went to the Ticket-Counter of ********** ********** Park and normally asked for a ticket to Chandni Chawk with a cash note of Rs.10. I had been given back two coins and a ticket from the counter listening to my request. It was between 5.45pm to 6pm I received the ticket. As , - I am not a regular passenger and had full ********** on Metro Railway people,- I never bothered to look at the ticket and kept it in my left pocket of the shirt. When by around 6pm ,-I was getting through the gate of Chandni Chawk through the Metro Gate the ticket got stuck. A man in casual dress was then was at the gate , colllecting the tickets. He did not give me a chance to wait and snatched the tickets from my hand when I was repeatedly requesting to give me the ticket back and verify with any concerned person,- why the ticket was not passing through the slot. He took the ticket from me and told that I should have seen the chart and paid accordingly. I said ,- I was in a hurry to ********** a VIP in Ananda Bazar Patrika office thus , I expected asking in the counter will be sufficient . But,- I was forced to buy another ticket as a 'token fine' trusting on my words. My first query as a consumer is ,- as a citizen of India ,- we have both rights & duties. If I have failed on doing my duty of reading the chart & verifying my ticket,- Honorable Minister expects us to get fined. But,- what happens with my right to get a proper ticket purchased at the counter? On the other way,- I think the duty of the person providing me a correct ticket should be there. Moreover,- as a consumer ,- if I am not having a copy of such ticket,- how do you want me to prove what happened? In that case,- are you not hindering my right to keep the ticket in case of any dispute,- which the person has merrily snatched off in plain dress like a dacoit? Moreover,- how does your security people in Metro Railway allow people in plain dress to take tickets from people? Since,- due to some other important involvements I went away that day in another segment of city,- I could not reach ********** DasPark Metro station to complaint. Today ,- as I went to the Station Master's office at ********** ********** Park,- he(Mr.S.**********) and his assisstant Mr.C.R.********** Majumder, heavily argued with me and refused to give me the complaint register. Failing there,- to fight with my fading consumer rights I went to Vigilance Cell of Metro Bhawan on 09.05.2009. The two persons,(written as ASI on on person's table),- behaved very nicely and listened to the complaint and showed a list of tresspassers in Metro Railway without tickets. Thereafter,- he did not take any written complaint,- rather told to put a registered copy in Chief Operations Manager- Metro Railway,-but mildly with a smile said there will be big troubles as their will be enquiries about my genuinity and what not(that he did not quote)! Sir,- I have doubts ,- after this whether you want any genuine consumer to put up any grievance in the normal vigilance cell or not !!!! Hope you will look into this with the sympathy understanding that I a not trying to put up such 'hue & cry' only for Re.1 difference of fare or the fine that could be charged to me. There are lots of customers who are not konowing the way to put up grievances get harrassed . There are others who use 'big pulls' to come out of the situation . I fall into neither of the category.