Photo-identity cards on trains gradually kill off tout ticket menace
In his reply to discussions on Rail Budget, Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal may have argued in favour of higher cancellation charges for tickets to ward off touts or “illegal hoarders” of train tickets, but data suggests that this menace, which has been haunting the railways for decades, may finally be breathing its last, courtesy photo-identity cards.
Ever since the rule of carrying photo-identity cards during travel came into effect late last year, there has been a drastic drop in the incidents of transferred tickets detected on trains during checks.
Since October last year, the Indian Railways’ mop up in penalties from cases of transferred tickets has fallen by over 61 per cent. The progressive month by month fall in the number of transferred tickets came down by over 32 per cent by December-end and further down by the end of February this year. The decision to make photo-IDs must for all classes was announced in November and implemented from December 1 last year. Since January, some of the zonal railways have caught only a handful of cases; Northern Railway has detected only one, proving the efficacy of the system.
“Unlike in the past, now no one can corner tickets in fictitious names in advance to sell them at a premium later because of the ID system. Based on demand for certain routes and during certain seasons touts were able to charge even triple the ticket amount,” said a senior railway official.
“The chances of a needy passenger’s name and other credentials
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