HUBBALLI: An incident involving a Travelling Ticket Examiner (TTE) on train no. 16591 Mysuru-Hubballi Hampi Express has come to light.
The TTE allegedly slapped a Koppal-bound passenger in Bengaluru on Thursday night. This follows a report of an Air Force official reportedly attacking a Kannadiga salesman and filing a complaint, claiming he was insulted in Kannada.
Mahmad Basha Attar, a resident of Bhagyanagar in Koppal, told TOI that he was travelling from Mysuru to Koppal on Thursday in the S-3 coach.
“A TTE came checking the tickets of all passengers, and I requested him to speak in Kannada. I started recording the conversation with him on my mobile phone. He suddenly slapped me, grabbed my smartphone, and threw it away. He called his colleagues, including chief TTE Dixit and security personnel. Some women co-passengers explained to them that I just told him to speak in Kannada. Though Dixit was kind enough to tackle the situation in a cordial way, our coach TTE was not ready to listen and kept saying he doesn’t know Kannada and only speaks in Hindi. He even threatened me with booking a case for trying to interrupt his duties. However, other co-passengers warned him of escalating the incident to the next level, and he kept quiet,” he explained.
In the video clip, the TTE says he doesn’t know Kannada, and the clip ends there. Attar said that as the TTE grabbed his mobile phone and threw it away, the display went defunct, and he could not record the next incident. He has filed a grievance at Station Manager’s office in Koppal on Friday.
Condemning the incident, B Girishanand Jnansundar, Koppal district President of Karnataka Rakshana Vedike, said that many North Indian TTEs behave rudely with Kannadigas for not speaking in Hindi.
“SWR should either teach Kannada to all its staff or appoint Kannada-speaking people in all of its front offices or services. Though the sources and destination of the Hampi Express fall in Karnataka, railway employees are very insensitive towards the Kannada language and land. We are planning to submit a memorandum to SWR through the Koppal station master within 2-3 days,” he stated.
Manjunath Kanamadi, CPRO, SWR, said that this issue has been conveyed to the highest authority of the commercial wing. “We will ensure that no such issues will be repeated in the future,” he assured.
