In a major crackdown by the Railway Protection Force (RPF), seven touts were arrested at Dhanbad, while a total of 972 train tickets worth of Rs 24 lakhs were seized from their possession, said an RPF personnel on Wednesday.
The RPF personnel have carried out a special drive against touts and unauthorized agents at different locations in Dhanbad in order to curtail touting, said a railway official adding our aim is to check misuse of the facility of train e-ticketing and tatkal.
Keeping in view the demand for railway tickets due to holidays and the anti-social elements exploiting the situation to sell tickets at high prices, the RPF conducted raids under “Operation Tatkal” at different locations at Dhanbad, Koderma and Daltonganj, informed Inspector Avinash Koroshia.
The RPF team comprising Avinash Koroshia, Ajay Kumar Singh, K K Kanak, R K Minz, K N Singh, R Kumar, P Kumar, Amit Kumar and Rahul Kumar conducted raids at Saraidhela, Bank More and Bansjora in Dhanbad. During the raid, Tatkal tickets (including Premium tickets) and several e-tickets worth of Rs 9lakhs booked through IRCTC websites and issued on personal ID were seized from their possessions, said Avinash.
“We have also seized laptops including several incriminates documents from their possessions,” he added.
All seven were arrested Under Section 143 of The Railways Act and we are interrogating him, said an official.
Notably, the stiff action of the Railway Administration puts an end on the touts to physically buying tickets; now travel agencies have taken a new method of extorting money from the passengers by creating a number of personal IDs with IRCTC (Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation) for online ticketing of the Indian Railways.
Unauthorised buying and selling of reserved tickets is an offence under Section 143 of the Railways Act, he said.
Passengers, who buy tickets from unauthorised travel agents, may lose both their tickets and the reserved accommodation if such tickets are seized during raids, the official said.
Now, the travel agents are making wealth through e-tickets. They used to charge between Rs 500 to Rs 1,500 from passengers for anywhere while they are permitted to charge only Rs 20 per person, he said.
By using many personal IDs, travel agents can book any number of tickets while with their official ID, they can only book 20 tickets in a month, he added.
We appeal to the mass to avoid purchasing of rail tickets from unauthorised agencies and touts, said the official.