HC moved for adequate staffing of railway ticket counters

The First Bench comprising Chief Justice M Y Eqbal and Justice T S Sivagnanam today, the Bench issued notice to the Indian Railways and Southern Railways when the petition complaining about long queues of people waiting to purchase tickets for travel on the Electric Multiple Units (EMU) trains used by thousands of commuters.

Petitioner S Sathia Chandran, an advocate, attributed the reduced number of booking clerks at ticket counters in the city and suburban areas as the reason for the queues.

He claimed that there was just one ticket counter functioning at most stations.

The problem turned from bad to worse after the "steep" increase in bus fares in November last year, prompting a considerable section of bus commuters to switch over to the rail transport.

Citing newspaper reports, the petitioner said various railways unions had sought immediate filling up of vacancies of booking clerks. Though 136 posts were sanctioned by the Railway Board, the posts remain vacant even after a year.

He also said only a few of the Automatic Ticket Vending Machines (ATVMs), introduced a couple of years ago, were in working condition.

The queues were mainly of non-regular travellers as the regular ones purchased season tickets, the advocate said he was moving the court since there was no response to a representation submitted by him.