Closed ticket counters irk railway passengers

Tribune News Service

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Bathinda, September 12

Passengers at the city railway station are facing a tough time as two of the three reservation ticket counters are lying closed. The closed reservation ticket counters are causing inconvenience to the public as they have to wait in long queues to get their reservation tickets.

A number of passengers alleged that despite tall claims of the railway authorities to provide better facilities to the passengers, non-operational ticket vending machines in front of the ticket counters show how serious the authorities concerned are towards the passengers’ convenience.

Manoj Kumar, a passenger, said, “We face inconvenience as most of the time these ticket counters remain closed, making passengers to stand in a long queue to get tickets booked. A number of passengers who are not able to fill their reservation forms accurately are asked to take a new form and rewrite the whole information because of which passengers find themselves in a helpless situation.”

Jyoti Kumari, another passenger, said, “There is no separate queue for women and if any woman attempts to come forward and get the ticket booked then she is criticised by the ticket counter officials as well as people who were standing in the queue.”

The railway authorities concerned would have to open all the reservation ticket counters for the convenience of the public rather than giving assurances, she added.

Balwant Singh (60), a city resident, said, “Although there is clearly mention on the wall of the ticket window counter that senior citizens can come forward and book their tickets at the earliest, but due to heavy rush and unawareness of filling the form accurately the ticket counter officials do not book the tickets and ask us to edit the information on the form and then come again.”

Besides, there is no sufficient seating arrangement, due to which unwillingly we have to sit on floor, he added.

Ramswaroop Meena, station superintendent confirmed that due to the shortage of staff from 1 pm onwards only one ticket counter is open at a time.

“Though we are trying our best to provide good facility to passengers, we are able to open only one counter due to staff crunch,” he added.