WR suspends TTE after he makes passenger write apology letter for asking him to speak in Marathi
Mumbai, Nov 5: The Western Railway has suspended a train ticket examiner (TTE) for allegedly making a passenger write an apology after the latter asked him to speak in Marathi, an official said on Tuesday.
The action came after a photograph of the apology letter surfaced on social media, and passengers staged a protest, he said.
Talking to PTI, Vineet Abhishek, chief public relations officer of Western Railway, said an inquiry is ordered into the incident that took place at Nallasopara station on November 3, and TTE Rakesh Mourya has been suspended.
"All passengers, regardless of their religion, language, or region, are equal to us. Providing excellent service to them is our goal. The matter will be investigated thoroughly, and necessary action will be taken," he said.
Around 70 to 80 passengers staged a protest at Nallasopara station after the purported apology letter surfaced on social media on Monday, officials said.
According to officials, the TTE asked the passenger, Amit Patil, and his wife to furnish their local train tickets. The couple asked him to speak to them in Marathi as they did not understand Hindi, and an argument ensued.
The TTE took the couple to the office of the Railway Protection Force, where Patil claimed that the official had threatened them and made him write an apology, they said.
The Western Railway, in its statement, affirmed its commitment to respecting all languages and passengers.
"Western Railway respects all languages spoken across the country and values the diversity of our passengers, standing firm on unity in diversity," it stated.
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IPL mega auction to be held in Jeddah in Saudi Arabia on November 24, 25: BCCI
New Delhi, Nov 5: The mega auction ahead of the Indian Premier League 2025 will be held in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on November 24 and 25, the BCCI announced on Tuesday.
This is the second successive year the auction is being held overseas as Dubai hosted the previous one ahead of the IPL 2024.
The player registration officially closed on Monday and a total of 1,574 cricketers (1,165 Indian and 409 overseas) have been signed up for the auction, which will clash with the third and fourth day’s play of the first Test between India and Australia in Perth, which begins on November 22.
Each franchise will be able to form a maximum squad of 25 players (including respective retained players), and a total of 204 slots will be up for grabs from the auction.
The list includes 320 capped players, 1,224 uncapped players and 30 players from the Associate Nations.
Among capped players, 48 are from India. Moreover, 965 uncapped players of the country will also be part of the auction.
This year’s auction will feature some high-profile India stars such as Rishabh Pant, KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer and Arshdeep Singh.
The 10 franchises will collectively have around Rs 641.5 crore to spend for the available 204 slots.
Out of those 204 slots, 70 are earmarked for overseas players.
As of now, 46 players have been retained by the 10 franchises with cumulative expenditure of Rs 558.5 crore.
Each franchise was allocated Rs 120 crore to build their squads but after the retention process, which was announced on October 31, Punjab Kings have the biggest purse -- Rs 110.5 crore.
The Punjab outfit retained just two uncapped players -- Shashank Singh and Prabhsimran Singh for Rs 9.5 crore.
Rajasthan Royals, under Sanju Samson, have the smallest purse of Rs 41 crore after retaining six players.
The Kolkata Knight Riders have also retained six players but they have a remaining purse of Rs 51 crore.
