Indian Railways Ticket Checking Drive: In a bid to keep a check on unauthorized traveling, the Western Railway zone has been conducting regular ticket checking drives. With these intensive drives conducted by the national transporter, the Western Railway zone recovered an amount of over Rs 80 crores for irregular travel while an amount of Rs 26.92 lakh was received as fine from passengers without mask cases, during the period April 2021 to January 2022. According to a statement issued by Western Railways, during the checks conducted by the zonal railway from April 2021 to January 2022, nearly 13.67 lakh cases of ticketless or irregular travel of passengers including unbooked luggage cases were detected. This resulted in a recovery of Rs 80.07 crore.
During the period, as many as nine cases of transfer of reserved tickets were detected and an amount of over Rs 13,000 was realized. Apart from this, 540 beggars, as well as 613 unauthorized hawkers, were apprehended, out of which, 242 of them were charged and an amount of Rs 1,04,165 was realized as Indian Railways dues. A total of 369 people were prosecuted and an amount of Rs 1,34,870 was recovered in fine from them, Western Railways further added.
According to the WR zone, the staff of ticket checking has been vested with the power to collect fines from train passengers without face masks. As a result, as many as 14,492 cases of passengers traveling without masks were detected and an amount of around Rs 26.92 lakh was recovered over Western Railway from 17 April 2021 to 31 January 2022. In the statement, the Western Railway zone also appealed to the general public that all permitted categories of railway passengers to travel with proper and valid tickets and should carry valid ID cards in order to avoid inconvenience as well as always wear masks. Besides, it also requested passengers to follow proper medical as well as social protocols as mandated for the Covid-19 pandemic.