Cases of ticketless travelling in Delhi metros are nothing unheard of, but shockingly, a data shared by the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) in reply to a RTI revealed that during last six months around 363 passengers complained against the staffers of overcharging during the purchase of tickets/tokens for travelling in the metro rail.
Witnessing several incidents of overcharging, Zeeshan Haider an RTI activist filed an RTI to know how many such complaints were filed and what kind of actions the DMRC has took against its staffers to tackle the situation to solve the problems of its commuters. However, the Delhi Metro replying to the questions said, “ As per the record keeping and disposal process of DMRC, only record of complaints and suggestions are kept in the commuters complaint cell for a period of six month only. Hence, as per the available data, from November 2017 to April 2018, a total number of 363 complaints have been registered with the authority.”
“Yes, it happens most of the time, I have faced such incidents several times as I was travelling from the Mayur Vihar Phase-I and purchased a ticket where the ticket vendor over-charged me by five rupees saying that he does not have change. Also, in some other stations, found they take cut extra money while purchasing the token and many time people don't notice as they are in hurry,” said the RTI activist.
The DMRC received a total of 119 complaints between November17- December- 17. Further, around 244 plaints were registered from January to April 2018.
An another commuter who use Delhi Metro daily said, “Most of the time, passengers reach on time but the exit gate do not open and they are forced to approach customer care of the station. They are then asked to pay extra bucks and are even accused of cheating, even after a passenger is having smart card with enough money”, said a passenger but did not want to be names.
When asked for the comments, Anuj Dayal, Executive Director (Corporate Communications), DMRC, said, “DMRC takes cases of overcharging very seriously. All such complaints are investigated and necessary action is taken. Token vending machines have been installed at many stations to eliminate such possibilities. Passengers are also advised to check the value of their tokens before leaving the token counters,” he said.
