Picture for representational purpose only. Picture for representational purpose only.

During UPA rule, the Indian Railways fared badly not just in financial terms but even when it came to providing satisfactory services to passengers, a Transparency International India (TI) report, collated with replies to over 3,000 RTI applications, has revealed.

The report titled, 'Indian Railways: Complaint Handling Mechanism', which MAIL TODAY accessed exclusively, has highlighted cleanliness and personnel-related issues that have badly affected consumer experience.

TI-India sourced information from all 16 divisions from across five regions of the Indian Railways about their passenger-related complaint-handling mechanism between 2012-13 and 2013-14, the categories of complaints and the action taken. The reason cited for choice of these two years was that Railways had taken comprehensive steps in 2011 to improve their complaint-handling mechanism.

"Interestingly, almost all the complaints lodged in this period are shown as closed cases. From the data TI-India collected by way of RTI, it was found that even if a case was forwarded to a higher authority, it was considered as 'addressed' or 'closed'. So, exact action, like fine or penalty levied on staff, fixing of the coach infrastructure, etc. after the complaint is received is not known. This is duping consumers. The time frame to address complaints is also missing," said Ashutosh Mishra, executive director of TI-India.

While Indian Railways has divided complaints into 21 categories, the TI-India report broke them into four broad themes - personnel, services, ticketing and others. According to the report, most of the consumer complaints made against Railways pertained to services (56 per cent of the total across all five regions); regarding misbehaviour of personnel was five per cent; regarding ticketing six per cent; and others accounted for 32 per cent, which included issues as corruption, bribery and faulty inquiry.

The report clearly states that most complaints by the passengers pertained to cleanliness and maintenance. "In both the years, increasing numbers of complaints were registered against shoddy state of rail coaches. Further perusal showed dissatisfaction with dirty bogies, torn seat covers, loose nulls of seats, broken side trays, dysfunctional window shutters, etc. Another related issue was non-availability of travel bags, or about dirty travel bags. Also, passengers complained over non-availability of water in trains and at stations; catering and vending services, including the department's and contracts; cleanliness at stations; and dysfunctional electrical equipments such as air-conditioners," said Mishra.

"The ticket checker has become the epitome of corruption and he can trade seats at will without any checks. Even after so many years of privatisation in the Railways, consumers find themselves at the mercy of misbehaving staff. Private staff engaged for catering and cleaning also misbehaves with the passengers. What can you do if you are served bad food? The staff has no manners and don't know how to behave with women," said Rachna Mishra, a resident of Indirapuram in Ghaziabad who recently travelled from Allahabad to Delhi.

Incidentally, TI-India also found the travelling ticket examiner to be one of the prime targets of passenger complaints, apart from checkers at the stations, booking clerks, reservation clerks and other commercial staff.

"Most complaints in this category are received against railways' own employees. Majority of the complaints are registered against ticket checkers. Complaints relating to travelling ticket examiner (TTE) not giving a passenger holding an RAC (Reservation Against Cancellation) a confirmed seat, charging money for allotment of seat to an e-ticket holder (waiting ticket) (as per new laws electronically-booked waiting ticket is not valid once the chart is made), TTE selling his seat to passengers by charging for a full ticket, or taking money from passengers without giving proper receipt," Mishra cited the report.