(a) whether special flying squads of Railways have carried out special checking to catch passengers travelling without valid tickets and those carrying goods without proper bookings;
(b) The number of passengers caught travelling without ticket or transporting goods without booking since January 1998 till date;
(c) the measures proposed to be taken for checking ticketless travelling; and
(d) whether officers have been made accountable in this regard?
MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS AND MINISTRY OF PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS (SHRI O. RAJAGOPAL)
(a): Yes, Sir. The special ticket checking squads of Railways have carried out these checks.
(b): During the regular as well as surprise checks conducted by the regular ticket checking staff as well as the special squads, a total of 615.01 lakh cases were detected involving travel without ticket, with improper ticket and carriage of unbooked luggage during the period January, 1998 to September, 2001. No separate statistics are maintained for checks conducted by the special ticket checking squads.
(c): Besides emphasising on the regular ticket checking activities, the Zonal Railways conduct checks during specific periods at nominated places which are prone to irregular travel so as to have a greater impact for curbing the problem. The Railway Magistrates and Police are also associated from time to time.
(d): The officers of Railways are involved both in actual checking as well as monitoring of ticket checking activities