Title - Paucity of staff at Srivilliputtur station

A few passengers cancelled their trip, some chose to travel without tickets and a few others rushed to the bus stand

The counter to issue reserved/ unreserved tickets remained empty at the railway station here on Thursday.The station was manned by a Station Master and the job of issuing tickets, both reserved and unreserved, was vested with a commercial clerk. Thursday happened to be his weekly off. A commercial clerk from Rajapalayam was supposed to join duty. Due to a personal work, he took leave. In such a contingency, the railway authorities are supposed to post a ‘reserve’ person from any other nearby railway station to do the work. But, no such arrangement was adopted on Thursday.As a result, the Station Master (on night duty whose working hour ends at 7.00 a.m.) himself issued unreserved tickets to passengers bound for Shencottah or other stations en route in Pothigai Express since there were only a few passengers and there was only one train at that time (6.50 a.m.). But Madurai to Shencottah Passenger and Shencottah to Madurai Passenger trains reached the station at 8.50 a.m. in both directions. The Station Master abandoned the counter and took care of trains.