Gulam Rabbani :
The people who went to their native villages and towns to celebrate the Eid ul Azha had only one day in hand to return to their respective job stations, as a 14-day countrywide strict lockdown started from Friday. As a result, like all other transports, trains were also overcrowded though the authorities sold tickets only half of their capacity.
Thousands of passengers boarded on the trains without tickets as there were no ‘standing ticket’. In this circumstance, Travelling Ticket Examiners (TTEs) of the
trains collected penalty money from the passengers. But the TTEs did not give receipts to the passengers.
This is not the scenario for the restricted Eid season only, rather it is a common scenario in trains for all the seasons. Though there is an option to issue instant ticket, the TTEs don’t give any receipt to the passengers in most cases.
Ratan Miah, a passenger of Kishoreganj Express who came to Dhaka on Thursday, said, “I got on the train to avoid traffic jam on the highway. I thought the ticket checkers would give me a receipt even if they would fine me. But they didn’t issue any receipt or any instant ticket though they levied fine on me.”
A few more passengers of the train have made similar complaints. The passengers further said that the train was stopped indeterminately at several places outside the fixed stations to unload the illegally fined passengers.
Dhaka Divisional Railway Manager Sadequr Rahman said that the railway department doesn’t have sufficient manpower to tackle such irregularities. But some initiatives would be taken soon to prevent the passengers from journey without ticket, added the official.
“As per rule, a passenger has to pay double of the normal cost for a particular distance if he/she travels without ticket. However, we did not keep any option to issue instant ticket to the passengers for maintaining health guidelines. And it was also not possible to restrain the passengers travelling by the trains without tickets as most of the railway stations are manned by 2/3 staff-members only in one shift,” added the official.
After a lockdown induced break, Bangladesh Railway (BR) resumed operations at half capacity from 15 July. As per announcement, railway operated 38 intercity and 19 commuter and local trains at 50 percent capacity. But the operations have been stopped again to comply with the strict lockdown.
