MINISTER OF RAILWAYS AND COMMERCE & INDUSTRY
(SHRI PIYUSH GOYAL)
(a) to (f): A Statement is laid on the Table of the House.
STATEMENT REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PARTS (a) TO (f) OF UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 2612 BY DR. SUKANTA MAJUMDAR, SHRIMATI SANGEETA KUMARI SINGH DEO, SHRI RAJA AMARESHWARA NAIK AND SHRI BHOLA SINGH TO BE ANSWERED IN LOK SABHA ON 04.12.2019 REGARDING REPRESENTATIONS FROM MPs
(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/seats have been earmarked as Emergency Quota in different trains and in different classes. The quota is released by the Railways 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 those from Members of Parliament are considered and the remaining quota is released taking into account various factors like official status of passengers travelling, nature of urgency like travelling on government duty, bereavement in the family, sickness, job interview, etc. While the requests received from HOR holders/Hon’ble Members of Parliament for their self travel are complied with, in case of requests forwarded by them for other than self travel, at times, it is not feasible to accommodate all such requests when the demand exceeds the availability.
(b): Since a large number of requests are received from various quarters at various levels and are dealt with on day to day basis, details of requests received for release of accommodation out of Emergency Quota including those from HOR holders/Hon’ble Members of Parliament are only preserved as per extant guidelines.
(c): No, Sir. However, some instances of attempts to get accommodation released out of Emergency Quota on the authority of fake letter heads of high dignitaries and some Railway Officers have come to notice. As reservation staff remains alert for such letters during peak rush periods, the genuineness of these letters are checked. When it is confirmed that these are fake, no accommodation is released on such requests and further action like lodging of criminal case is taken.
(d): It has been decided to provide the facility of booking reserved tickets online through Indian Railway Catering & Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) by sitting as well as former Parliamentarians. Software for the same has been developed and project is ready to be launched.
(e): No, Sir.
(f): Indian Railways have already taken various steps to streamline the process of reservation of accommodation by Hon’ble Members of Parliament, its confirmation by release of emergency quota thereof, conducting of checks to keep a watch on the activities of the staff involved in release of emergency quota, etc. Recently, Minister of State of Railways has written a letter to all the Hon’ble Ministers and Members of Parliament seeking their co-operation in systematizing the procedure of prioritization of letters received for release of accommodation out of Emergency Quota. Further, improvement in the functioning of computerized Passenger Reservation System (PRS), release of emergency quota, etc. is a continuous and ongoing process.
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