- I Paid A Bribe
- 9 years ago
- 1356 views
Paid bribe to an agent for boarding my bicycle onto the train I'm travelling in safely
- Railways
- Vehicle Transport Booking
- Paid INR 360
I travelled from Chennai to Coimbatore on 1st May 2015 on the Coimbatore Express(1430 hours). I had to transport my bicycle along with me on the same train that I was travelling in. So I approached the booking counter 2 hours before the departure where I met with a person who claimed to do the booking for me. I was not sure if the guy was an official or an agent(I'm assuming it should be the latter as there were 2 others doing this and they had a dealing among them in dividing the bribe). He further told me that the charges would be Rs 700 for the entire process(Actual charge + packing + bribing officials) and that the bicycle would be safely boarded. I was shocked as I had paid around Rs 250(including the bribe to the Officers and Coolies) when I had transported my bicycle from Coimbatore to Chennai an year ago(Which again is wrong). I was worried whether the bicycle would be boarded safely(without any damage) and on the same train I'm travelling in(or would be boarded in a later one, failing which would add more work for me as I'd be reaching my destination around midnight and I might have to come to the station again on the next day to claim it.) As I was more worried about its safety I relented and gave a total sum of Rs 400 to the agent. I later came to know that the actual charge for the transportation was only Rs. 36 and the agent has swindled all the money(Rs 360). I felt ashamed of doing this(bribing) and later realised that I should've done all the procedure myself. I'm recording this with the hope that other's would avoid doing this and that the Government should publicly put-up the processes to the passengers and save us from bribing such agents.