Kerala: Rail official under SMS fire'
Commuters protest by sending SMS and WhatsApp messages to the railways complaint number, over the regular delay of peak-hour passenger trains
Kochi: Irked by frequent late running of the peak-hour passenger trains, a group of daily commuters indulged in a novel protest on Monday when they bombarded the Southern Railways Chief Operating Manager with complaints through SMS messages.
The railway records on history of running status of the Guruvayur-Ernakulam Passenger (T No 56371) for the past one month itself show that the train was late up to an hour on half of these days and the punctuality record was dismal.
“As usual, the train was late by 40 minutes today. A lot of daily commuters are getting affected as they are regularly penalized for late punching at offices and other institutions. Hence, commuters began to SMS the complaints to the personal mobile number of the Chief Operating Manager S. Anantharaman. This, after our repeated pleas to the divisional authorities fell to deaf ears,” said R. D. Manikandan, co-ordinator, Edappally Railways Passenger Association.
Earlier too, the commuters protested late running of trains like Shornur-Ernakulam Passenger and Guruvayur-Punalur fast passenger by wearing black ribbons for five days in protest. The officials were prompt in taking the remedial action then. “These trains now run on time most of the days, thanks to the chief operating manager who directly oversees the operations post our protest,” Manikandan said.