CCTVs planned after Kurla TTE assaults commuter. Central Railway will install glass doors and windows at the chief ticket inspector's office so that the goings-on within are clearly visible, after a ticketless commuter was assaulted by a travelling ticket examiner (TTE) at Kurla station.

Apr 25 2015 : The Times of India (Mumbai)

CCTVs planned after Kurla TTE assaults commuter

Manthan K Mehta & Nitasha Natu

Mumbai: TNN





Central Railway will install glass doors and windows at the chief ticket inspector's office so that the goings-on within are clearly visible, after a ticketless commuter was assaulted by a travelling ticket examiner (TTE) at Kurla station.Navroz Charania (36), a hotel employee, was travelling from Kanjurmarg to Kurla when the TTE, Anand Singh, caught him on Wednesday . He took away Charania's cell phone and allegedly hit him on his face inside the chief ticket inspector's (CTI) office.The Kurla GRP has registered a case against Singh but has made no arrest yet.
CR general manager S K Sood said Singh had been suspended.
“Apart from replacing the doors and windows with transparent ones, we will get CCTVs installed. The footage can be used as evidence if commuters complain of misbehaviour by ticket-checking staff.“
“Commuters caught ticketless are taken to the CTI's office on the pretext of completing paper work. They are often made to sit for hours if they do not have the cash to pay the penalty . The goings-on inside the CTI's office are never known to anyone outside. Certain TTEs take away commuters' cell phones, which is illegal,“ said an activist.
Charania told TOI that Singh was involved in assaulting another commuter in the past few weeks but the commuter did not lodge a police complaint. “I was in a hurry and forgot to buy a ticket.Around 9.30am, I got off on platform 4 at Kurla, when the TTE told me to stop. He took me to the CTI's office and started abusing me as I did not have a ticket. I told him I was willing to pay the fine and he should mind his tongue. He lost his cool and punched me on my face. He kicked me and took away my phone,“ said Charania. Charania was made to wait at the office for half an hour. “A few other TTEs entered the office. Singh had picked up a chair to hit me but noticed his colleagues and stopped. He then left. Later, his co-worker returned my phone,“ added Charania. The other TTEs helped Charania reach the Kurla GRP outpost, where a case of assault was lodged.
Charania was taken to Bhabha Hospital at Kurla as there were bloodstains on his face. “The cops claim they are waiting to procure CCTV footage of the station. Singh is a railway employee and the cops have his address. There should not be any delay in arresting him,“ Charania said.

Attach train if rlys doesn't pay up for land: Court

Apr 14 2015 : The Times of India (Mumbai)

Attach train if rlys doesn't pay up for land: Court

Shimla: TIMES NEWS NETWORK





Two farmers from Himachal Pradesh's Una district may become proud owners of the Delhi-Una Janshatabdi Express on April 16 if a court order is executed.Una's additional district and sessions judge Mukesh Bansal on April 9 ordered the attachment of the train if the railways failed to pay compensation to the two farmers whose land was acquired to lay the Una-Amb track in 1998. The court said if Mela Ram and Madan Lal did not get Rs 8.91 lakh and Rs 26.53 lakh respectively , the train would be stopped at Una station at 5am on April 16 and attached by it. Ram and Lal had moved the court against the delay in payment even after the HP high court had directed the railways in 2013 to pay the money within six weeks. Advocate A K Saini, who represented the farmers, said the railways had acquired the land in 1998, following which the farmers filed a case seeking higher damages. In 2009, the railways too moved court, but in 2011 the district court raised the compensation amount and gave the railways three months to appeal.
But railways moved the HC only in 2013, and it ruled that the sum should be deposited in the court in six weeks. The Delhi-Una Janshatabdi Express could be attached by the district court in Una on April 16 if the railways fails to pay over Rs 35 lakh as compensation to two farmers whose land it had acquired to lay the Una-Amb track. The case has bounced from the lower court to the Himachal Pradesh high court, with the parties filing cases and counter cases. Finally, the HC di rected the railways in 2013 to pay the farmers within six weeks. “But the railways hasn't deposited the amount until now,“ the farmers' advocate A K Saini said.
As the high court had also made it clear that after the lapse of six weeks, the parties would be at liberty to execute the order, the aggrieved farmers moved the lower court. After hearing the plea on April 9, judge Mukesh Bansal ordered the attachment of the Janshatabadi train. “We'd submitted a list of four trains--two passenger, Himachal Express and Janshatabdi--and the court directed to attach the Janshatabdi,“ Saini said.