MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS
(SHRI RAJEN GOHAIN)
(a) to (e): A Statement is laid on the Table of the House.
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STATEMENT REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PARTS (a) TO (e) OF UNSTARRED QUESTION NO.2789 BY SHRI RAHUL KASWAN TO BE ANSWERED IN LOK SABHA ON 03.08.2016 REGARDING CORRUPTION IN TICKET BOOKING
(a): In order to meet the urgent travel requirements of High Official Requisition(HOR) holders, which includes Central Government Ministers, Judges of Hon’ble Supreme Court/High Courts of various States, Members of Parliament and other emergent demands, who are on the waiting list, a limited number of berths have been earmarked as Emergency Quota in different trains and in different classes. The quota is released by the staff in accordance with the priority as per warrant of precedence and well established practice being followed since long. At the time of allotment of berths/seats, emergency quota is first allotted for self travel of HOR holders/Members of Parliament, etc., strictly as per their inter-se seniority in warrant of precedence. Thereafter, other requisitions received from various quarters including that from Members of Parliament are considered and the remaining quota is released taking into account various factors like status of passengers travelling, nature of urgency like travelling on government duty, bereavement in the family, sickness, job interview, etc.
(b): No, Madam.
(c): Does not arise.
(d): Emergency quota is generally earmarked at Divisional and zonal Railway headquarters and other important locations where a gazetted officer is available to control the same. These offices are spread over entire Indian Railways and centralized data of such locations along with details of officers deployed therein is not maintained.
(e): With a view to streamline the ticket booking system including Tatkal reservation and to check its misuse, various steps have been taken, some of which are as under:-
(i) Passengers have been given the option to book reserved tickets either through computerised Passenger Reservation System (PRS) terminals of Indian Railways, or through internet or through authorised agents like e-ticketing agents, Yatri Ticket Suvidha Kendra (YTSK) licencees.
(ii) It has now been made mandatory that for undertaking in reserved class, one of the passengers has to produce one of the prescribed proof of identity in original failing which all the passengers will be treated as travelling without ticket and charged accordingly.
(iii) A provision has been made in the computerized Passenger Reservation System(PRS) to ensure preparation of reservation charts at least four hours before scheduled departure of train and thereafter passenger can book the available accommodation through internet or across any computerized PRS center, till preparation of second reservation charts.
(iv) Surprise checks are conducted by the Commercial/Vigilance Departments to prevent and check irregularities in the reservation system.
(v) No refund is granted on cancellation of confirmed Tatkal ticket.
(vi) The facility of change of name is not permitted on the booking made under Tatkal Scheme.
(vii) The timings of opening of booking under Tatkal scheme on the opening day of reservation have been staggered to 1000 hours and 1100 hours on the previous day of journey from train originating station for AC and non-AC classes respectively.
(viii) Authorised ticketing agents have been restricted from booking Tatkal tickets during the first thirty minutes of opening of Tatkal booking i.e. from 1000 hours to 1030 hours and from 1100 hours to 1130 hours for air-conditioned and non-air-conditioned classes respectively.
(ix) Web service agents have been permitted to book only one Tatkal ticket per train per day.
(x) Maximum four passengers per PNR are permitted for Tatkal Tickets. Individuals are allowed only 2 Tatkal tickets per IP Address from 1000 hours to 1200 hours and maximum number of tickets allowed to an individual user is limited to 6 per month.
(xi) CCTVs are installed at important PRS locations to monitor the activity of touts.
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