Well few days ago I came across an youtube video which actually Went Viral on Social media websites. The Video shows the heated Argument between Passengers and the Ticket counter Staff at the Lokmanya Tilak Terminus. Mumbai Suburb.
The message on the video says that - "A ticket distributing staff is accused of counting her cash during the ticket distribution time. When passengers asked her for tickets and suggest her to count cash later when she is free, the situation escalated and arguments started".
The Video is Title - "A Heated Argument At The Railway Ticket Counter of Lokmanya Tilak Terminus!"(watch the below below).
When I first watched the video for first few Seconds, I thought, yes it was the Fault of that Lady Staff. But when I watched the Full Video and when analysis of my own, I realized that Both the passengers as the Well as the Staff are not wrong here. Infact when I read almost every comment out there, most of them, say almost 90% of the commentors were actually Abusing that Lady Staff for not doing the Job!
The Sad part is, She has been suspended from her Job. But in Actual, She was doing right. She was Doing here job(explained below).
So, Then who is at Fault here.! Ghost! No.
Alright to explain this in detail, here is an incident I came across myself -
Few days ago, I went to the EB office(Tamil Nadu Electricity board) to pay my Bi-monthly bill. There was only one line out there and I was the 7th customer in that Que. Infact that EB office has about 3 counters but only one remains active always. And the actual reason is - "Lack of employees". So, After payment for 4 persons, suddenly the power went off! And since their PC were not enabled with UPS facilities and the PC turned off completely.! But the power came back in 5 minutes and they turned on the PC. It was an old PC I guess and it took about 7 to 10 minutes for the PC to turn on and another 5 minutes for the Internet connection to get connected.!
And in the mean time, the Clark/assistant actually was counting and segregating the money from his money drawer! So we literally had to wait for about 15 minutes extra! And the by the time my turn came in, it was a total of 35 minutes of Wait.!
Well yes, I had a lots of anger towards them. And infact many other customer standing next to me started yelling at him just like in that Video. But I before busting it out to him, thought for a second! Why is this Delay! Was this delay the fault of the Clark/assistant!
NO. It was due to the bad infrastructure and equipment provided to them for doing work at there govt offices. So yes the delay will be there! So finally I paid the money, said Thank you to them and left.!
Now coming to the Railway Counter Video. The Actual problem I guess is because of these -
- Improper Infrastructure -
Well Infrastructure does not only mean that the Ticketing counter is not Enabled with AC, or the Computers or the Printing Machine or their Desk!
But even number of counters available for ticket also comes under infrastructure. Basically, our Railway ticketing counter systems are copied from other foreign countries. There in other countries the counters and its employees are made to deal with the actual load of customers they can deal with. This is done after a lots of studies and analysis.
But when the same is copied here, the ticket counters are constructed in the same manner which can occupy the same amount of Employees as in the other countries, but they have to deal with double to triple of customers load! And that is why the employees go on shortages of Tickets, money notes, Coin change and even printer cartridges during work timing! Well they can't close their counter during working hrs to do this quick stuff and hence do these during work time to keep the work going on.
This is result of wrong planning of infrastructure in India.
Now if, there were more counter, with more employees. The Work will be equally divided and hence this might not have happened.
Every year more than 700 to 1000 vacancies come up with Railways to fill up these jobs. But the exams have become so tough that, they paper look similar to that of an GATE Examination. And because of this kind unusual recruitment procedure, not many are recruited and hence the Seats never get filled up completely. I mean out of 700, only 300 get filled up. And that rest 400 is added up with next year's vacancies. India Still has about more than Lakhs of unemployed Graduates counting in every State.
If the recruitment was Easy but Training was more into the job, then more employee will share the work and give the best to the customer.
The Same is with other organisation like Banks and other PSUs.
The Above two are linked with this. But here in this part comes is things like Time management, money management which are linked with improper Training given to them and improper Equipment.
Well in this Video, the equipment looks good. But at one point the video shows a large crowd behind in the Que. And there is only two ticket counters to deal with over 40 passengers here and their train is gonna leave in another few seconds! So its basically impossible for that Staff to issue tickets to all in another few minutes.!
But If there were more Employees at Extra Ticketing counters, Say about 4 Employees. Then the work would have been shared and even if one goes short of money or technical lag, the other 3 can take over.!
As per the video, what actually she does is - She is Tallying the money with her, randomly and quickly. This is actually the part of her job where she has to keep a track of the money she receives, so that she can handle her further customers smoothly. This is usually done at almost all Cash counters including Banks, Tax offices and even on City buses. And whole of the money counter is closed at end of the day or end of the shift.
But the impatient Passengers could not even wait for few seconds and Started yelling at her and even verbally abusing her by Calling "awaz niche"(told by a teen to an elder lady who may be about the age of his mother). And on the other hand the Videographer started taking video of her without her Concern.! If she(the Ticking girl) was an young girl, The situation would have been different.
Infact at one point she was accused of being forcefully closing the ticket counter. But the truth is, she is avoiding that rude teen from getting physically Assaulted by him.! Because she then continuously kept on issuing the tickets to others.
What I also guess is, She might also have got aggravated, when she saw someone taking video of her during working hours, which is actually wrong. CCTVs do that job. And if CCTV are not installed, then Passengers should inform that issue to the management, which is missing in this issue.
On a Final Note I would say -
She was Doing her job there. Her Only fault was she Rudely replied to that Teen. But she went rude only when the Teen Passengers were even more Ruder than that Staff and even were about to assault her physically! Hence I Really Condemn on the Decision of Indian Railway on Suspending her. She might have let go with a Warning or memo.!
Also Passengers and Citizens should learn manners while talking in Public, both Govt or Pvt employees. They are not Servants. They are just employees. Respect & Mannerism towards elders is required with most of Kids and teens, which I find totally missing among them today..
NOTE 1 - This is my Personal view and views change from person to person. So before Criticizing me, think for once or Twice.
NOTE 2 - No heated Arguments here please.
NOTE 3 - I am not an govt Employee at all.
