ANSWERED ON 20.02.2014
TICKET BOOKING SYSTEM IN RAILWAYS387 . Shri CHANDRAKANT BHAURAO KHAIRE
MANSUKHBHAI D. VASAVA
Will the Minister of RAILWAYS be pleased to state:-
(a) the procedure laid down for release of berths/seats out of the emergency quota earmarked in various trains;
(b) whether cases of corruption in confirmation of emergency quota
tickets by touts allegedly in collusion with Railway officials posted in
Emergency Quota Cell (EQC) have been received;
(c) if so, the details of the inquiry conducted and persons found guilty during the last three years, zone-wise;
(d) the locations where EQC have been set up including the number of officials posted in each of these cells;and
(e) the measures taken by the Railways to simplify the ticket booking system and to check corruption in ticket booking including under Tatkal scheme?
ANSWER
(a) to (e) A Statement is laid on the Table of the House.
STATEMENT REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PARTS (a) TO (e) OF STARRED QUESTION NO.387 BY SHRI CHANDRAKANT KHAIRE AND SHRI MANSUKH BHAI D. VASAVA TO BE ANSWERED IN LOK SABHA ON 20.02.2014 REGARDING TICKET BOOKING SYSTEM IN RAILWAYS
(a) Emergency quota is earmarked on different trains/classes in order to
meet the travel requirements of High Officials like Ministers, Judges
of Supreme Court/High Courts, Members of Parliament, Legislators, senior
Government functionaries, etc and to meet the emergency travel demands
of waitlisted passengers. This quota is released by according priority
as per inter-se seniority in the warrant of precedence and as per a well
established practice. After assigning preference to the High Officials
and VIPs as per warrant of precedence, the remaining quota is released
for urgent travel on account of Government duty, bereavement in the
family, medical exigency, etc. Un-allotted berths of the Emergency Quota
are automatically given to RAC/waitlisted passengers at the time of
preparation of reservation charts.
(b) & (c) The complaints regarding corruption/irregularities in
allotment of berths through Emergency Quota received occasionally are
examined and action is taken if the complaints are substantiated. During
the last three years, there have been two unsubstantiated complaints on
Eastern Railway and one substantiated case of irregularity in
confirmation of tickets through Emergency Quota by touts in collusion
with Railway officials posted in Emergency Quota Cells on South East
Central Railway wherein action has been taken under Disciplinary &
Appeal Rules against the officials concerned. Further, in two other
similar cases reported on Northern Railway the matter has been
investigated and appropriate action has been initiated against two
officers.
(d) Emergency Quota Cells are located at Zonal/Divisional Headquarters
and at some of the important non-Headquarter stations. These Cells
normally function under the control of a gazetted officer supported by
requisite number of staff posted by Zonal Railways. The number of staff
posted in each such Cell varies according to the workload.
(e) With a view to simplifying the Passenger Reservation System
and to keep a check on the misuse of general reservation and the Tatkal
reservation scheme, steps are taken by the Railways from time to time,
some of which are as under:-
(i) To ensure easy access to reserved tickets, the facility of issuing
reserved tickets has been provided at 3139 computerised Passenger Reservation System (PRS) locations including PRS cum UTS locations and 270 Post Offices.
(ii) The facility of booking reserved tickets through internet has been made available from 0030 hours to 2330 hours daily.
(iii) The authorized SMS sent by IRCTC containing all vital details when
displayed through laptops/palmtops/mobile phones combined with valid
photo identity card in original, is treated as an instrument on par with
the Electronic Reservation Slip (ERS) of e-tickets.
(iv) Capacity of the internet ticketing system
has been enhanced through installation of new High Capacity Database
servers, new firewalls and through installation of additional software
licenses.
(v) Internet Bandwidth has been increased from 340 Mbps to 450 Mbps.
(vi) The facility of booking reserved tickets through non-internet based mobile phones has also been started recently.
(vii) The condition of production of prescribed proof of identity during
the journey by any one of the passenger booked on a ticket has been
made mandatory. In case of Tatkal the original proof of identity as
indicated in the ticket is required to be carried. In case of non
production of prescribed proof of identity, all the passengers booked on
the ticket are treated as travelling without ticket and charged
accordingly.
(viii) With a view to reduce chances of misuse of Tatkal scheme various
provisions of Tatkal scheme have been modified, which are as under:-
# The timings of opening of booking of reservation under Tatkal Scheme
and general scheme have been staggered to 1000 hours and 0800 hours
respectively.
# Advance Reservation Period of Tatkal scheme has been reduced to one day excluding the day of journey.
# Refunds are not granted on cancellation of confirmed Tatkal tickets
except in case of special circumstances like late running of train by
more than three hours, cancellation of trains, etc.
# Duplicate Tatkal tickets are not issued under normal circumstances. In
exceptional cases Duplicate Tatkal tickets can be issued on payment of
full fare including Tatkal charges.
# At the computerised Passenger Reservation System
(PRS) counters, Tatkal tickets are issued only on production of self
attested photocopy of one of the prescribed proofs of Identity mentioned
in the scheme. While booking e-ticket, the passenger has to indicate
the number of identity card in the system.
# A restriction of booking of a maximum of four passengers per PNR on Tatkal ticket has been imposed.
# Web service agents have been permitted to book only one Tatkal ticket
per train per day on internet and only after 1200 hours.
(ix) With a view to protect the interest of individual users, access to
Tatkal booking and normal booking on the opening day of reservation
through e-tickets by the Travel Agents/Web -service agents/Web Agents of
Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), has been
disabled between 0800 hours and 1200 hours.
(x) Closed Circuit Television cameras have also been installed at major
stations/reservation offices to keep an eye on the activities of
anti-social & unscrupulous elements indulging in malpractices in
reservation.
(xi) Capturing the transactions being made by RTSAs has been built in to the Passenger Reservation System (PRS) on all bookings/ cancellation forms.
(xii) Instructions have been issued for keeping a watch on the counters
handling abnormally high number of requisitions particularly during
opening hours of reservation.
(xiii) Concept of “Captcha” has been introduced in computerised PRS so
that booking clerk cannot make use of the input string in advance.
(xiv) To educate the passengers, frequent announcements are made through the Public Address System at Railway stations advising passengers to purchase tickets only from booking counters of the station or from the authorized ticket counters.
(xv) Regular/surprise checks are conducted by the Commercial Department
of Railways in association with Security/ Vigilance Department, at
Reservation/ Booking offices, platforms and in the trains also.
(xvi) Instructions have also been issued to all zonal Railways that
Sr.DCMs/DCMs should conduct regular inspections of Reservation offices
and also personally inspect PRS offices during the opening hours and
take immediate steps to check the touting activities.
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