Railway booking clerks give ticket coupons as loose change, rile commuters

Mumbai’s rail commuters have been complaining that there is an increasing trend among booking clerks at stations to give away railway ticket coupons instead of cash as return money. But railway officials said that the clerks could have been doing so as they have been facing a shortage of change at some instances.

“I travel from Malad to Bandra and my return ticket fare is Rs12. If I hand over a Rs20 note, the clerk asks me if I have a change of Rs2 and the moment I say no, I am given ticket coupons worth Rs8. This is not fair and they should not force us to take coupons,’’ lamented Pooja Bhosale, a commuter.

Commuters on Central Railways (CR) also have similar complaints.

“I faced a similar situation at Kurla station last month and I was given coupons. I seldom travel by railways and I was forced to give it to someone else,”’ another passenger said.

National Railway Users Consultative Committee member Subhash Gupta said that it is unfair on the part of the railway clerks to forcibly give away such coupons, but said that it was a genuine problem and there was shortage of change.

Booking clerks, in turn, stated that there is an acute shortage of change and that it is a genuine problem.

‘’The crowd and queues are long and change is not always available and coupons come in handy. It saves time and helps the queue move faster. But it is not done regularly,’’ a clerk said.
Railway officials informed DNA they would look into the problem.

“We can take action, if there are specific complaints from particular stations,’’ a railway spokesperson said.

It may be recalled that the Kalyan police had recently busted a trio who used to re-sell used ticket coupons, by erasing the date on it and polishing the paper.