Indore (Madhya Pradesh): A shameful incident happened at Kota railway station on Wednesday night on the maiden run of the 20957 Indore-New Delhi Superfast Express train when some staff of Kota railway station got into a scuffle with three Travelling Ticket Examiners (TTEs) of the train. Due to the ensuing chaos, the train was stranded there for 1.30 hours in place of its 10-minute halt.
Following persistent demands, the city got its second direct train for New Delhi in the form of this Indore-New Delhi Superfast Express. In a joyful atmosphere, MP Shankar Lalwani, mayor Pushyamitra Bhargav and MLA Akash Vijayvargiya had flagged off the train from the city railway station. But the happiness of getting a second train on the section was short lived when the train reached Kota railway station at 10.10 pm on Wednesday.
Suddenly, some people claiming to be the railway staff of the Kota division of the West Central Railway and members of the Railway Officials’ Union said they were the “actual” TTEs of the train and their duty was fixed on this train. They asked the three TTEs on the train to get off the train and said they would take this train up to New Delhi. They even tried to snatch away the reservation charts from the TTEs. The heated arguments that followed finally led to a scuffle with the TTEs of the train, Satyanarayan Meena, Nathusingh Meena and Manjeet Sohel.
Some passengers said this sudden chaos created panic among the women and children passengers. The passengers complained that, during the entire episode, the Railway Protection Force (RPF) personnel at Kota railway station remained silent spectators. However, on the intervention of some women passengers, the Kota railway station staff finally got off the train.
Khemraj Meena, PRO of the Ratlam division, said that, according to the instructions of the WR headquarters and to offer end-to-end service to passengers, they had made arrangements that the TTEs would run right from Indore to New Delhi. Following the incident, they have sought further instructions from the WR headquarters.
