INDORE: Thefts of linen and towels are turning to be a big trouble for attendants in trains. The authorities are finding it difficult to curb the problem.

When a train’s AC berths are vacated at any station, the attendants collect back linens, bed sheets, pillows and fresh towels provided to passengers for their use. They say each day there is a theft of 5-6 linens.

“Stealing linen is a routine affair for passengers travelling in an air-conditioned compartment. During counting of the items, some or the other things are missing,” said Umesh Pathak, an AC compartment attendant.

He said the towels and bed sheets easily fit in luggage making them easy to steal and they are the one who bear the losses. “Because of these thefts, huge amount of money is deducted from our salary every month.”

Another attendant Murari said around Rs1,000 is deducted every month from his salary. “If not Rs 1,000, at least more than Rs 500 is deducted every month because of these thefts,” he said.

Another attendant Shyamraj said, “Besides bed sheets and towels, even blankets have been stolen from the facility by the passengers. For every single stolen bed sheet Rs150 is deducted from our salary, while for every blanket Rs 200 and Rs 34 per towel are deducted.”

He said that their contractor gets the amount from railway authorities but deducts it from attendants’ salary. “When the linens are stolen railway authorities and contractors also suffer losses but at the end of the month both manage to recover the losses,” he said.

PRO Ratlam, Jitendra Kumar said, “Attendants are to be blamed for their carelessness. It’s their duty to keep a check on passengers for which they have been appointed. Checks are difficult. It is a common mentality which thinks that government property is personal property of the people and they can take it with them. We can not ask the attendants to check the luggage as the passengers may feel offended. It’s not practical even to implement such checks on a routine basis.”