12 Kolkata: An argument broke out between a passenger at the Howrah Metro station and the employee handling the booking counter on Tuesday allegedly over language.
Trouble started with the passenger reportedly asking about a fare and the Metro employee, a Hindi-speaking person, replying in Hindi and English. "The passenger told him to answer in Bengali, the native language of the state. The Metro employee allegedly retorted that if he started speaking Bengali, the state would turn into Bangladesh," a source told TOI. "This escalated the argument, with the quarrel turning into a Bengali-versus-non-Bengali dispute."
Metro Railway initiated a probe into the incident. Late in the evening, Metro Railway said that an examination of the CCTV footage and talking to people who were in the vicinity when the incident took place revealed the passenger's allegations were untrue. A Metro official said, "The staff member in question has a flawless record, but we are doing our job. An inquiry was started though there is no written complaint. We spoke to onlookers—mainly those who were in the vicinity at the time of the incident."
Metro Railway has rechristened itself as ‘Amar Kolkata Metro', which translated into ‘My Kolkata Metro', aimed to make every passenger in the city to be a part of the ‘metro family'.
Tuesday's incident follows a similar controversy between two passengers on a Metro train last month, when a woman, who was speaking in her native tongue instead of in Hindi, was told by a co-passenger, "This is not Bangladesh."
Stay updated with the latest news on Times of India. Don't miss daily games like Crossword, Sudoku, and Mini Crossword.