Chamber of Commerce protests shifting of railway booking offices

Singhbhum  Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI) has written to the divisional railway manager ( DRM) of South Eastern Railway's Chakradharpur division protesting the recent closure and shifting of two city booking offices to post offices.

The letter written by general secretary of the trade body Vijay Anand Moonka to the DRM Chhatrasal Singh with a copy marked to the SER general manager SN Agarwal demanded re-opening of the two city booking offices of Bistupur and Telco, which were shifted to the post offices of the respective area in the first week of July.

" We protest against the move. The railway city booking office at Bistupur was situated at the heart of that commercial centre benefitting traders, businessmen, and students. But, ever since the city booking office was shifted to the Bistupur post office people are facing problems of slow network, overcrowding and also locational disadvantage, " pointed out the senior functionary of the trade outfit in the letter.

The trade outfit functionary also expressed concern that the fact that untrained staff was also adding to the woes.

“It is really surprising that most of the staff involved with the ticketing work in both the post offices at Bistupur and Telco are not properly trained and this often delays he work," he said.

Railway sources said the two city booking offices collectively use to sell around 600 reserved tickets daily. And the idea of shifting the booking counters in post offices was to increase the ticket sale.