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Humiliating! Indian women's hockey team forced to sit on train floor

Updated on: 29 August,2016 05:16 PM IST  | 
mid-day online correspondent |

Is this how we treat our sports heroes? Four members of the Rio Olympics 2016 Indian women's hockey team returning home were forced to sit on the floor of the train. Activists and Twitterati demand action

Humiliating! Indian women's hockey team forced to sit on train floor

In what is a shameful indictment of the authorities, four members of the Rio Olympics 2016 Indian women's hockey team were made to sit on the floor while they were travelling from Ranchi to Rourkela on the Bokaro-Allepey Express train.


The four players -- Deep Grace Ekka, Namita Toppo, Sunita Lakra and Lilima Minz from Odisha, who were members of the Indian women's hockey team at the just concluded summer Olympics, were made to sit on the floor of their bogey as their tickets were unconfirmed. This despite them being railway employees who don't require their tickets to be booked prior to commencement of the journey.


To make matters worse, this incident took place on a day that Indian Rio Olympic medallists Sakshi Malik, PV Sindhu, finallist Dipa Karmakar and badminton coach P. Gopichand with being rewarded with BMWs.


THIS IS THE INDIAN WOMEN'S HOCKEY TEAM RETURNING HOME FROM RIO

Activists have slammed the incident and called on Minister of State for Sports and Youth Affairs Vijay Goel to register a case of inhuman treatment, negligence and exploitation against railway officials.

Since they are railway employees and don’t need to buy train tickets, the TTE (travel ticket examiner) should have arranged seats for them.

Activists demand action

Woman activist Brinda Adige told a news agency, “These ‘Babus’ (officials) have no reason at all to be there, they have not contributed in anyway, neither in advising the team nor in seeing to the teams well being, and are travelling in business class, whereas they have made the players travel unreserved, some travelled sitting on the floor of their train.”
“How can this kind of injustice be tolerated? Why haven’t these officials been thrown out of the train?” she asked.

Nirmala Sawant, another activist, told the news agency, “I think this is very shameful for us as Indian citizens, and at the same time, Olympics participants bring pride to the nation.…it is quite depressing, and I think, the Railway Minister (Suresh Prabhu) should take immediate action so that this kind of injustice is not caused to any sportsperson.”

Indian Railways refutes report

Refuting the reports, the Indian Railways on Monday asserted that the travelling hockey players held no grudge against them.

"The news reports about Women's hockey team, after their return from Rio Olympics being forced to sit on the floor while they were travelling from Ranchi to Rourkela via Bokaro-Allepey Express train is completely false. Also the information that of the TTE asked them to sit on the floor of the bogey of the train is untrue," the statement said.

The Railway Ministry said the hockey players, on reaching the Ranchi airport went to the station and took the train without any information to the Indian Railways, who would be in a better position to make appropriate arrangements for the players.

"However, when the players boarded the train with unconfirmed tickets, the TTE took only 20 minutes to make seats available to them," the statement added.

The statement further added that the players hold no grudge against the Indian Railways and the same was communicated by them to the Indian Railways authorities.

"They also said that the players were in a hurry to meet their family members and hence preponed the plan which led to the confusion," said the statement.

TWITTERATI DEMAND PROBE AND A LITTLE RESPECT FOR OLYMPIANS

(With Agency Inputs)

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