TTE suspended over ‘abusive behaviour’ to Sikkim students in train

Guwahati: A travelling ticketing examiner (TTE) from the Bangalore Railway Division has been reportedly suspended for his abusive behaviour towards some students from Sikkim inside a Shramik special train on May 19.

The incident came to light after a video of the TTE with the students inside the train bound to New Jalpaiguri in West Bengal went viral.

In the video, the TTE can be seen rudely ordering some women students to sit in a particular compartment of already filled students. The TTE is then seen ordering the passengers to remove the luggage which was kept on the seats.

The TTE is even seen rudely telling a youth to sit down as he attempts to keep the luggage on the top berth. When a student in the video comments that the purpose of them keeping the luggage in the seats was to maintain social distancing, the official remarked, “If you want to follow social distancing, then travel by flight.”

In addition to this, the TTE is also heard asking the students how much money did the students give to the police to afford this service.

The video was posted to Facebook by one of the students who discreetly recorded the altercation. The link was then widely shared on other social media platforms, including Twitter, where many users started tagging railway minister Piyush Goyal and also the official handle of the ministry of railways.

Meanwhile, former Arunachal East MP Ninong Ering took took to Twitter to share the video. “See this video in which a Railway staff is ill-behaving with some stranded North Eastern people who boarded a special train from #Karnataka,” he tweeted.

This then caught the eye of Divisional Railway Manager AK Verma who apologised for the behaviour of the TTE and placed him under suspension.