Unavailability of railway reservation tickets during the summer vacations is putting the passengers into sticky situation leading to frequent hullabaloo at the reservation counters everyday here.
Booking counters these days witness regular disputes among the people after getting disappointed as tickets get exhausted within minutes. Moreover, middlemen and babus rule these counters making it impossible for a common man to get a ticket.
“It has become impossible for everybody to get his ticket in this situation, as the counter clerk is already piled up with a heap of applications before he reaches to the counter,” said a person standing in a queue at reservation counter at Ranchi Railway station. But an agent can readily provide tickets if you promise Rs500 per ticket to him, he added.
Another student standing in tatkal line claimed that he had come there at 7 am in the morning still he was the last person in the line. People standing in the front claimed to have come a day earlier which seems to be impossible, he added.
Almost same situation prevails at other booking counters in Ranchi. People reaching hours before it opens acquire only fourth or fifth positions in the queue, by which tatkal quota gets exhausted.
“It is really strange that despite standing at number 4 in the queue, I could not get a confirm tatkal ticket to Mumbai in lTT Express, the rail authorities must look into the matter as there is a sense of disappointment among the people out here,” he added.
“The agents, on the other hand, will arrange a ticket to any part of the country after charging Rs 500 per ticket,” he said.
The rail authorities however, defended themselves citing the sea of passengers behind the crisis during vacations.
“There are very few berths in tatkal quota and tickets are booked on hundreds of places due to which it gets exhausted within minutes,” said Assistant Commercial Manager Arjun Mazumdar. Moreover, when there is a sea of passengers trying to book it for them, only few will get it disappointing the others, he added.
The Railways however, have made arrangements for special train to Bangaluru for which we were getting maximum requests. In addition, some extra coaches have also been added in select trains to minimize the rush, added Mazumdar.
The condition at booking counter at Jharkhand Assembly and Jharkhand High Court is worse as people standing in the queue often get upset after they could not get their tickets blaming the counter clerk for making delay in entering their requests into the system.
“Situation was completely uncontrolled on Thursday when the staff at Jharkhand Vidhan Sabha started shouting at each other blaming others for not getting their tickets; they even threatened the counter clerk to be ready to face dire consequences for not booking their tickets before the others in the queue.”
“He is a staff here and is shouting at the counter clerk after he denied him to put his application above others in the queue,” said another staff at the booking office at Jharkhand Assembly.
It has become a regular practice for some fourth grade staff at the Assembly coming here regularly for booking tickets, mostly of unknown persons, he said. It is quite obvious that they working in connivance with some travel agents push their application forms taking advantage of the reservation counter in the premises of Vidhan Sabha.
Similar was the situation at Jharkhand Vidhan Sabha where the crowd at the booking counter lost patience after the link failed for a few minutes in the morning before a tatkal ticket was booked.
“We are deliberately not allowed to enter the premises in the name of security so that the policemen and High Court staff can push their own forms to the booking counter depriving a common man of getting the ticket,” blamed a lady in the crowd.
Although opened for every common citizen of India, special reservation counters at Jharkhand Assembly and Jharkhand High Court are claimed to be opened for the local staff denying tickets to the others, said the lady.
Mazumdar on the other hand, said that these counters have been opened under the policy of the Railway Board to provide a ticket counter at each of the High Courts and Assemblies in the country where we cannot deny ticket to anybody whoever approaches it for tickets.