Sir,

I am working in the commercial section of the Mumbai Suburban (Central) Railway as a senior booking clerk. I wish to bring to the notice of your readers my observations about the policy that the railway administration is following. In my opinion, it is neither in the interest of travelers nor in the interest of the railway employees. I feel that this is true of many departments in the Indian Railways; however, I will only focus on the booking section of suburban ticketing.

If you travel by the suburban trains in Mumbai, you cannot but notice the long queues for buying of tickets. The Waiting time to buy a ticket can often be much more than your journey. The main reason for this is that the ticketing section is grossly understaffed. There has been virtually no recruitment in this section. The staff is so stretched that even if a booking clerk takes a break to attend to nature’s call, tempers rise in the queue where people are waiting to buy tickets. To make matter worse for the ticketing clerks, the administration has prominently displayed complaint numbers and in Mumbai almost everyone has a mobile handy to immediately make that complaint call. The Administration is harsh on the employees against whom complaint may be lodged. They are suspended from work and if several complaints are received against an employee then warning may be given, increment may be stopped and the employee may even be terminated from service.

The decision makers in the railway do not seem to know the ground reality. The top officers see something in London or Paris and try to duplicate it here without first seeing if such things are appropriate for the Indian situation. For example, automatic ticket vending machines (ATVMs) are installed in large numbers but most people are not comfortable in using these machines. Often I see the ATVM unused even when the queues are long. Moreover, they have not properly planned for the maintenance of these machines. The maintenance agency is situated in Kurla and there is quite a lot of delay by the time they can come and service in the event of a break down.

The administration is opening new ticketing windows in local stations but without hiring more ticketing clerks. Opening of additional ticketing windows is causing a lot of tension for the Chief Booking Supervisor. He dare not complain about the lack of booking clerks because he will get a promotion only if he makes do without hiring new people. It is like the Rail Minister announcing 58 new trains in this years Railway Budget without hiring motormen and traveling ticket examiners (TTEs). TTEs are already doing the work of two in most cases. Instead of three compartments, they are being asked to cover four to six compartments. In such a situation it becomes impossible to check all tickets.

It is not that all positions are understaffed. The top positions are multiplying. For example, in Central Railway, which used to extend up to Faridabad 20 years ago, there used to be one Divisional Railway Manager and one Chief Commercial Superintendent at the top. Today there are seven of these. At the same time there is no recruitment at the lower level. The lowest rung of railway employees, i.e., gang men, is no longer hired as a railway employee. This work is being done almost entirely by contract labourers now.

Thus the motto of the Indian Railways is not to maximize the benefits to the bulk of the travelers. All the planning seems to be for cutting down on the number of railway employees. In the process, condition of the employees and travelers alike are getting worse. Even the railway safety appears to be compromised and I am amazed that we have not had a major derailment or mishap in the Mumbai locals since the tracks are not even properly maintained.

Sincerely yours,
S. B. C.