Kochi: ‘Look… if this is the case, there will be more train murders like this…’ a TTE said on condition of anonymity, just a few hours after a migrant worker pushed TTE Vinod Kannan to death from the Ernakulam-Patna superfast train. 

Those we call `guests’ do not have enough trains to go to their native place. This is a big issue. The trains that ply in that direction carry ten times as many people as its capacity. They refuse to add more trains and instead, send squads to impose fines on those poor souls, a TTE said over the phone. 

He pointed out the reasons that led to the death of Vinod Kannan. “Such issues constantly crop up on the Guwahati, Howrah and Patna trains. Reservations are not made. If there is a rush the migrant workers flog to the sleeper coaches, they climb on to the AC coaches as well.

Once in six months, the number of passengers in trains are counted. Thus, Railways knows whether the number of passengers have increased or decreased. The number of migrant workers in the state has increased significantly but trains have not been introduced. To increase revenue, more AC coaches are added by reducing the number of general coaches. How will common people travel? When those with second class tickets find no space to enter their assigned coach, they climb on to the adjoining sleeper or AC coaches which creates an issue. 

Unlike before, if the passenger who booked a ticket does not get a seat, they can immediately lodge complaints using ‘Rail madad’ (Railway grievance redressal online system). The railway board takes actions on these complaints within seconds after the complaint appears on the TTE’s tab. The responsibility of redressal has been placed on the TTE. It is difficult to control migrant workers and no help can be sought from the RPF (Railway Protection Force) as they are understaffed. With the advent of rail madad, the number of complaints have increased to a great extent. More squads have been deployed to conduct inspections and reduce complaints. Issues like this happen when squad try to disembark ticketless travellers by taking into consideration the safety and comfort of the reserved passengers.   

As per railway board rules one TTE is assigned per three coaches during the day time and one TTE for two coaches at night. Now that there are no staff, one TTE has to manage four-five coaches day and night. When new trains come, new posts should be created commensurately, which is not happening anywhere in India. 

The solution is to increase the number of trains or to increase the number of coaches in trains to Bihar, West Bengal and Odisha. Or Antyodaya express where travel without reservation is possible must be introduced. If such trains are made to depart at night, it can be arranged in such a way so as to not affect the passengers or train traffic during the day’. Saying this, the TTE hung up the phone, adding that the world should know the real reasons why these things happen.