Railway TTEs Target Bihar and UP Migrant Workers to Achieve Fines Targets

Hyderabad: Labourers from Bihar and UP returning to the city after the Diwali and Chhath festivities are being targeted by the railways’ commercial staff. The migrants allege that despite numerous pleas for more trains on the route, the railway authorities have remained silent on the issue.

Migrants from Bihar stated that the commercial staff of railway single them out and slap fines in different forms.

Bihar Samaj Seva Sangh president Raju Ojha, explained, “Recently when I went to Secunderabad station at 10 pm, I noticed that when the Dhanapur-Secunderabad Express arrived, over 10 ticket checking officers rushed towards the train and the exit gates. They stop the labourers from Bihar and UP and slap fines on them, in the name of ‘carrying excess luggage’. Unfortunately, this happens only with these migrants. They are stopped till late in the night.”

Ojha added, “The Samaj Seva Sangh is getting several such complaints from migrants going to their native village or returning to the city about them being targeted by railway officials.”

Devkumar Pukhraj, from Bihar, living in the city for the last 12 years, narrated his experience.

“The ticket checking staff, who are entrusted with a high target to collect fines, is the main reason for these innocent migrants getting targetted. They mostly buy general tickets as they don’t get reservations because of insufficient trains. Most of them being illiterate, they cough up Rs 1,000-Rs 2,000 on average in fines on a single trip.”

Anil from Bihar, working in a construction firm in the city, said, “The checking happens mostly on trains from UP or Bihar. The railway staff makes sure that they impose fines, they check the tickets, check the pockets for pan gutka and fine them, including for carrying excess luggage.”