Amid cries for measures to ensure the safety of women in public places, an incident of unfair treatment to women on train was reported on New Year day.
The complainant, Sheeja Vinod, 34, and her daughter Sneha Vinod, 12, boarded the West Coast Express here at 7 p.m. on January 1 after finding their tickets confirmed on the Net and the railway reservation chart. They were accorded a berth (RAC 55) for their journey to Chennai as per the chart pasted on the compartment. But on boarding the train, they found someone else seated on the berth. On approaching the travelling ticket examiner (TTE), they were asked to get out of the compartment as the TTE’s chart did not have their names.
The train had already started moving and the ticket examiner paid no heed to their requests to let them travel. They were forcefully expelled them from the train at Vadakara at 2.a.m.
When they checked the ticket status on the Net the next day morning, it was waiting list again, a change they could yet not fathom. The railway authorities, on query, said that one compartment was cancelled on that particular day and the glitch might have occurred due to this.
At a press conference in Kannur on Friday, Ms. Sheeja’s brother-in-law Jayapalan P.V. and his brothers said that a complaint had been filed with the Southern Railway and the State Human Rights Commission. The aggrieved party had identified the TTE from his nameplate.
