Woman forced to detrain in the middle of journey

KOLLAM: At a time when the Railway claims to have taken adequate measures to ensure safety of women passengers, a young woman travelling alone had to face the unkindest gesture of being asked to alight from the train halfway through her journey, that too, late in the evening.A railway ticket examiner allegedly demanded Priya N D, a nurse at the Government Victoria Hospital here, on her way to work to get down at Alappuzha station around 7 p.m., after her request to convert the ordinary ticket to enable her travel in the reserved compartment was turned down. Priya had boarded the Thiruvananthapurambound Jan Shatabdi Express from the Ernakulam South railway station.She claims that as tickets for Jan Shatabdi were not available from the counter, she was directed by the staff at the counter to travel with the ordinary ticket and avail of conversion of the ticket from the TTR during the journey. “However, when the TTR came, he informed me that conversion is not possible and asked me to get down at Alappuzha. “ I explained the situation and conveyed that I am ready to pay any fine,” she said. Priya said that TTR threatened that she would be forcibly pulled out with the assistance of Railway police. On turning down her pleas, she got down at Alappuzha station and is said to have approached another TTR of the same train, who allegedly showered her with abuses. She later had to board a bus to reach Kollam by around 10 p.m.NOT AN ODD INCIDENTA top official told Express that despite directions given to ticket examiners that woman passengers travelling alone should not be evicted from the train during late hours, several such comlaints received in this regard will be taken seriously. However, in most cases the official concerned would escape severe action by approaching the court, he added.Southern Railway Passengers Association state committee president Sajeev Parisavila said that a complaint would be submitted to the Railway Divisional Manager. He said that such incidents had been recurring even after promises from the Railway on safety of women passengers.