Dear Sir / Madam,

Please refer to my complaint detailed below.

Complaint in Detail:

It was the first time I was Traveling to Allahabad (U.P.) from Mumbai for searching a good stay at Allahabad for My studies and examinations.

I searched ITCTC web site for Trains to Allahabad from Mumbai and on the basis of availability of seats, suitable timings and my comfort thereof I decided to travel to Allahabad by Muzaffarpur Express (Pawan Express) and by Mahanagri Express for the return journey after a week time.

After 2-3 days on 06/07/2010 I went to Dadar Station along with my Friend who wanted to accompany me at Allahabad for reservation.

We filled up the forms for reservation and both got a confirmed ticket in the Pawan express for journey on 02/08/2010-Monday from Lokmanya Tilak Terminus (LTT) to Allahabad.

We also filled up forms for Return journey from Allahabad to Mumbai (Dadar) in Mahanagri Express. I wanted to return in one week time but my friend wanted to stay a Little longer and return in the mid of September.

We submitted our respective forms for reservation for return journey too on proposed dates in the Mahanagri Express on proposed dates of 07/08/2010 (for me) and 15/09/2010 (for my friend). My friend got a confirmed ticket but I got RAC (RAC/76 RAC/68).

We had clearly informed the person at ticket counter that book the tickets only if the coach and the birth are confirmed on the proposed dates, else search for any subsequent dates. But still he directly took the print out Of the ticket (RAC/76 RAC/68) without any respect to our request.

On our asking “why do you booked the ticket when it was not confirmed?” he replied, “It will definitely get confirmed before the date of the journey and we should regularly keep checking The PNR status of the ticket and the chart prepared on the previous day immediately prior to the date of journey for the coach and the seat no allotted to me.

Further on checking the ticket we come to know that he provided us the ticket with boarding at Vindhyachal Station (80-85 kms away from the Allahabad) in spite of clearly mentioning the boarding station as Allahabad in the reservation form. When we asked him about such wrong printing of the ticket, he replied, “don’t worry! You can still Board at Allahabad with this ticket.”

The upward journey on 02/08/2010 was quite comfortable. We got a company of good passengers In our coach but There was a little disturbance by “Trutiyapanthiya” people who visited our coach 4 times during the entire journey and threaten us to give Rs.10/- (some Rs.5/-) to them.

However, my Return journey was little Painful. One day before the Date of the journey (i.e. on 06/08/2010), I asked my friends uncle on the mobile phone in the night at around 10 p.m. to check the PNR status of My ticket and SMS me The coach and the birth allotted on the basis of the chart prepared from the web site of the Indian Railway. He SMS me that the coach is S-13 and the birth is 15. (S13, 15)
On the day of journey I boarded at Allahabad in 1094 – Mahanagri Express which was running late by 50 minutes to 1 hour.

I directly went to coach S-13 and seat No.15. However, as old lady around 70 of age was sitting on the seat no.15. I asked her to vacate the seat but she said that it was her seat. Not only she denied vacating the seat but she refused to show me her ticket also. So for the time being I sat on the seat no.16 belonging to other passenger after making a request to him. He agreed. I was waiting the T.T.E. to come. Within 15 minutes after that another person come to the old lady with RAC ticket (RAC/74 RAC 66) bearing the sign of a T.T.E. and hand written Coach No.S-13 and birth no.15 allotted to him by the T.T.E. I replied, “This seat no.15 in the coach S-13 is mine and the T.T.E. has made some mistake by allotting this seat to you”. This young person was accompanied by her mother who had a ticket with WL/114. He offered this seat no.15 to her mother but the old lady sitting on the seat no.15 was still not ready to vacate the seat at all. So I and her mother sat on the seat no.16 and the old lady on seat no.15 waiting for the T.T. E to come and solve the problem.

The train thereafter left Allahabad station and after crossing few miles reached Manikpur Junction. I lost my patience and went ahead to search for a T.T.E. from S-13 to S-6. I asked passengers in coach S-6 about any attendance by T.T.E. but they said T.T. E has still Not attended their coach too. Hence I came back to my coach and again sat on seat no.16 with the mid aged lady whose son was wrongly allotted the seat no.15 by the T.T.E. in coach S-13.

Nearly at 8 p.m. another old lady at seat no.22 came to the mid aged lady and said that she cannot climb the seat no.22 and therefore requested her to exchange the seat no.15 with the seat no.22. I was watching all this but still decided to wait for the T.T.E. and not to enter in any conversation with them.

This new old lady came from seat no.22 fired the former old lady and occupied the lower birth no.15. The mid-aged lady and her son both went to seat no.22 and occupied the seat no.22. I was standing near the seat no.15 in the hope that the T.T. E. will come sooner.

But let me mention that T.T.E. never attended any of the sleeper coach right from Allahabad to Bhusawal of our 1094-Mahanagri Express. Moreover, he allotted my seat no.15 in coach S-13 to person referred above (RAC/74 RAC/66) who boarded at Allahabad along with his mother (Boarding at Vindhyachal as per the ticket)
I was kicked-off by other passengers from my reservation seat no.15 in coach S-13 just 45 minutes before the Satna Junction when I tried to occupy a little part of the seat by allowing that old lady to sleep nicely. These passengers (2 in nos.) used abusive language and physical torture and forcefully pushed me to the toilet from my seat no.15. These 2 passengers accompanying that old lady who was sleeping on my seat no.15 were belonging to a group of 550-600 pilgrims who boarded at Allahabad station to alight at Bhusawal.

I travelled standing from the time I was kicked-off till Jabalpur Junction. Meanwhile some local passengers who were traveling to Jabalpur (sitting / standing near the door / toilet) offered me for their help after looking at my ticket. But I refused to accept their offer for help because they were offering me that they will repeat the same act of physical torture happened to me to those 2 passengers who kicked me away. I told them that it is not the proper and legal way to deal with this problem. I also told them that I will still wait for The T.T.E. to come and the problem of forcefully capturing of my seat by other passengers will come to an end. When I was standing near the toilet, 2 police personnel were passing through our coach. I asked to them for help and explaining everything happened to me. One of them told me that they cannot help me and said that I should visit T.T.E. sitting in the A.C. coach once the train reaches to Jabalpur Junction.

At Jabalpur Junction, I stepped down to platform from coach no.13 and went to A.C. coach to meet the T.T.E. That T.T.E. whose round was getting over at Jabalpur Junction directed me to another T.T.E. who was taking charge at Jabalpur Junction.
This T.T.E. told me that my ticket has been cancelled and allotted to somebody else. I wondered to hear his sentence and thought for a moment that “how it is possible? Who did it? And why it is cancelled?” However, on making a request to him, he assured that he will allot another seat to me and asked me to wait for him in coach S-1 or S-2 (Coaches neighboring to the A.C. coach). I said “please do it now”. But by that time the train started and I had to run from A.C. coach to reach and catch the coach S-1. Coach S-1 was full, I mean there was no place left even on the floor or near the toilet to sit properly. Therefore I went to coach S-2. It was 10:30 - 10:45 p.m. by that time.

I waited for the T.T.E. till 2:00 a.m. to 2:15 a.m. and hopelessly fall asleep on the floor till 6 a.m. when train reached to Bhusawal. Those 550-600 pilgrims left the train at Bhusawal. 2 T.T.E. entered at Bhusawal who told me on my request that they will allot me a seat and they really did it.

I sat on the seat so offered by the T.T. E. in coach S-2 and felt more relax, comfortable and little safe. But I decided to make a complaint of such irresponsible act of the former T.T. E.s.

I further request that a strict course of action should be taken on those T.T. E.s as per the railway rules and guidelines so that this thing will not happen in future to any of the helpless passengers / students traveling by train anywhere in our country India.

Thank you,

Yours faithfully,

Sandeep A. Chavan
sandeepchavan@hotmail.com
11/08/2010