No change for railway passengers

KOCHI: Every other day, railway passengers can be found hassled and silently cursing the railway counter clerks, who refuse to shell out change for the tickets bought by the travellers.This trend has become common at the Ernakulam North and South railway stations, which have  counted few counters to buy tickets, thus, forcing the passengers to wait in long queues.“By the time we reach the counter, they tell us that they do not have sufficient change and ask us to get change from elsewhere. We either end up complying to what they say or we pick up a fight, which is not common,” said Mark S, a passenger who uses the railway station services regularly. However, some people refuse to give in and register their complaints with the station master.“It is only a matter of `2 at times. Isn’t it obvious that if we had the change, we would have given it to them? Such callous attitude on the side of the railway staff gets bothersome. Sometimes, by the time we get the change, the train would have already left,” Ratheesh S, another passenger said. Passengers say that in such emergencies, either the railways should keep more change in store or relax the rules. “Sometimes, they don’t even give us the tickets unless we give them the change,” Ratheesh added.However, the railway staff have another point of view to the situation. “Sometimes, it is obvious that the passengers have the change but they refuse to give it to us. Why are we supposed to compromise on this issue. The passenger should realise that he is not the only person who has to board the train. There are other passengers who would also require change for their tickets.”Usually, on most given days, the railways take at least Rs 5,000 as change for the day. “In South, we usually receive Rs 1,000 at our counters. Some days, when there are fewer passengers, we end up with sufficient change. On other days, we end up with less than Rs 20. The problem of change only arises during the later part of the day,” a counter clerk said. This is contradictory to the claims of passengers who say they face the same problem even during the morning hours.Also, the clerks added that they usually ignore people who come at the last moment to catch the trains. “Sometimes, it is difficult to deal with some people. Why can’t the people come prepared?” one of the clerks asked.