Railway drive to check touts

Kolkata: In a bid to stop touts posing as travel agents and issuing fake tickets, the Eastern Railway has launched has launched a special drive named Mission Takal-07 in Howrah Division a month ahead of Durga Puja.

Eastern Railway's RPF has launched a special drive on Tuesday.

A team of 12 RPF personnel, in coordination with

Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), nabbed touts involved in e-ticketing scam or selling tickets illegally.

The RPF personnel raided 14 different areas covering the entire Howrah Division viz Ambika Kalna, Azimganj, Barddhaman, two locations at Nalikul (Bus stand & Railway station), Tarakeswar, Bally, Chandanpur, Kuntighat, Raghunathpur, Salkia, Pakur and two locations at Howrah area.

During such intensive raids, 15 persons were arrested and 238 tickets worth Rs 3, 79,771 lakh approximately were seized.

It might be mentioned that the fake user IDs were generated to book these tickets in an unauthorized manner only for the business purpose.

During this operation, articles and equipment used for e- touting were seized by the RPF teams and arrested persons are booked under section 143 of Railways Act.

Raids were also conducted at Jamalpur, Bhagalpur, Sahibganj and Malda.

As many as 788 cases were detected with realization of Rs 3,51,278 as fare and fine.