Working on a tip-off a team of personnel of Railway Protection Force (RPF) conducted raid in the premises of a travel agency in Bokaro Steel City; two were arrested in this connection, 23 tickets were seized.
During the raid 23 tickets including 3 window tickets and 20 e-tickets issued on personal ID were seized from M/s Rahul Travels, Ram Mandir Market Sector-1, said Sanjeev Sinha RPF Inspector.
The total value of these tickets is Rs 41,225, said Sinha adding “two including one the owner of the said agency were arrested Under Section 143 of The Railways Act and we are interrogating them”.
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.
Unauthorized buying and selling of reserved tickets is an offence under Section 143 of the Railways Act, he said. “Passengers who buy tickets from unauthorized travel agents may lose both their tickets and the reserved accommodation, if such tickets are seized during raids”, added Sinha.
Now the travel agents are making wealth through e-tickets. They used to charge between Rs 300 to Rs 1200 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 .
Sinha appeals to the mass to avoid purchasing of rail tickets from unauthorized agencies and touts.