[1]Immanuel was confident that he would get a train ticket reserved to Kovai for attending cousin Martha's wedding next month. But, his confidence hit a nadir when he reached the reservation center in Moore Market Complex, where booking clerks representing SRMU struck work, leaving reservation sus pended for nearly 2 hours on Friday. He has to either give his cousin's marriage a miss or look for quick travel arrangement. Hundreds of rail passengers were forced to revise their travel plans owing to the flash strike. “While we waited tiresomely in the queues outside closed reservation counters, others have booked tickets online. How will we travel now?“ wondered Munusamy Kannan, a techie from Palani.
SRMU member struck work demanding disbursement of their Deepavali bonus by cash. While they officially denied any suspension in ticket reservation, senior railway officials preferring anonymity told this paper that reservation remained suspended for over 2 hours, precisely, from 12noon.
Functionaries of rival DREU alleged that booking clerks representing their Unreserved counters in Chennai: 127 ¦ Reservation counters in Chennai: 41 ¦ Revenue per day from ticket sales: `9 crore ¦ Chennai division earns `4 crore daily. clerks representing their union could not work too as their colleagues from SRMU refused to give them the identity keys to log in to the reservation system.
Ticket reservation was suspended for an hour also in Madurai division.
“Where was the need for cash disbursement while the rest of the transactions, be it salary, arrears or any other benefits, are done through ECS?” railway officials wondered.
Links:
[1] http://103.241.136.51/train210jpgcropdisplayjpg-651