Experience@Indian Public Service

"A dead fish can dirty the whole pond": This is the story of the Indian Public Service Department.

I think most of the Indian Public Service Departments(PSD) have never been respected by the Indian Citizens because of the corruption that prevails. Torturing normal and innocent citizens for no reason and letgo the culprits has been a common phenomenon in various public departments. Tele-Serial "Office-Office" was able to bring out this aspect of the public service departments brilliantly.

I think most of us genuinely don't have high regards for these PSDs except the Army and other Defence departments in the country. Rest are just a source of getting things done. As a matter of fact there are few good people in the PSDs who are there at the service of the citizens. But certain section of people in PSDs manage to earn a bad name for themselves and tarnish the image of their respective departments.

What makes me write this post, is the incident that happened with me yesterday at the DADAR station in Mumbai.

I had a train to catch from Dadar station to Ahmedabad. I reached Dadar Station from Mahim by Taxi. After reaching the station, I went to the inquiry counter to find out the platform number from where the train was to depart. I didn't get any proper answer. On my way to finding the correct platform I found a female friend who too was struggling to locate the right platform. So we both started hunting together. And in the process we ended up reaching the wrong platform and after asking a hawker there we finally got the correct answer. So while walking from the wrong platform to the correct platform we were stopped by some TC in some blue clothes, who asked for the ticket. We showed our tickets which said reservation from Mumbai Central. But the TC was not ready to listen to us and was arguing with both of us that we were at the wrong platform.

I was amazed at the allegation that was made at us. If I am correct, if we have genuine ticket we can be on any platform. But the TC was after our life and said you can't be on any other platform except the one from where the train departs.

He took both of us to some shabby room on PLATFORM NO.5, WESTERN RAILWAY, DADAR, where there were 2-3 more people who were getting unnecessarily tortured by the TCs. I told him that we were struggling to find the right platform and by mistake ended up at the wrong platform, but he was not ready to listen and asked for Rs. 504 as FINE. I argued with him for some 15 minutes but in VAIN. He abused me with nasty words such as " TU CHOR LAGTA HAIN SAALE, HARAMI HAIN, MUMBAI MEIN LADKI GHUMA RAHA HAIN" and many more such words. I was totally disgusted but was helpless as I had a train to catch in 5 minutes. When I told him that I am getting late for the train he replied " MAA CHUDAIYE TRAIN". There were two more TCs there, and when I asked them to help me out, they didn't bother to even reply back.

He then called another friend of mine, who was standing few meters away from the place where I was getting abused. TC said " Yeh sharif lagta hain isilye mein tujhe chor raha hu, par tujhe Rs. 254 fine dena hoga". I said, but why should I pay a fine, without any fault of mine. But he was not ready to listen and I ended up paying the fine as I had to catch the train.

I was not the only one who was humiliated but also few others. The TCs were asking for fine from others and in the process they were literally putting their hands inside their pants, all over and snatching money. It was absolutely a hideous act.

After I left the room with my frustration level at its highest level, I went to another TC on the platform asking him if the fine was valid. He said " Aisa kuch nahi hota and he can't fine you". I asked him for help, he said " Mujhe Kya Pata".

I couldn't do anything and had to leave with a disgusted feeling. Felt as if I was totally fooled and ridiculed by these irresponsible public service people.

Herewith i am attaching the reservation ticket and the excess fare ticket receipt.





I hope I can do something about this and atleast make sure that these things are not repeated in future.