Railways working hard to bring touts on track: Suresh Prabhu

Speaking to Millennium Post, Prabhu said: “Dalal (touts) pe lagaam lagane ki sakht zaroorat hai (We have to come down heavily on these touts to curtail this menace.) We have made a lot of arrests and also regularly have filed cases against them. Even if they possess authorised licenses and indulge in unscrupulous activities, they are caught and their licenses have been cancelled. In fact in my Budget speech this year also, I have mentioned that to monitor this malpractice, we will be installing CCTV cameras.”

According to the Railways Ministry, 772 touts were prosecuted and 135 convicted during April, May and June in 2015. Regarding efforts made by the ministry to clamp down on touts and those peddling used train tickets to helpless travelers, Minister of State for Railways Manoj Sinha had also made a statement in Parliament during the recently concluded Budget Session. “Steps are being taken by the Railways to ensure that touts do not lure away passengers include regular drives being conducted by Commercial, Vigilance and Railway Protection Force (RPF) personnel against touts at Passenger Reservation System (PRS) offices, Unreserved Ticketing System (UTS) locations and on trains to detect fraud and touting activities. These checks are intensified during peak rush/festival periods. 

Crime intelligence is also collected by RPF to check malpractices. Touts are apprehended and prosecuted as per Section 143 of Railways Act. Besides, to keep surveillance on possible activities of touts and to monitor the working of reservation counter, Closed Circuit Televisions (CCTVs) have been installed at important computerised PRS locations,” said Sinha.

“Token system has been introduced at reservation counters in some major railway stations. For undertaking journey in any reserved class, any one of the passengers has to produce any one of the prescribed original proof of identity failing which all the passengers booked on the ticket are treated as travelling without ticket. RPF staff is deployed at PRS centres from time to time to assist Commercial and Vigilance departments of Railways to prevent touting/undesirable activities at PRS centres,” he added.

The ministry has also introduced a new feature that a maximum of six tickets can be booked online by an individual user in a month on IRCTC website. This measure has been taken to prevent any possible misuse while booking tickets and it came into effect from February 15, 2016.