Reserved rail tickets getting exhausted over a month before the scheduled departure of any train might be forcing people to depend on few Tatkal tickets, but cancellation of the cancellation of waitlist tickets has become a revenue generating module for the railways. Only Norther n Railway reportedly earned Rs 37.10 crore in April and Rs 33.43 crore in May from cancellation of tickets.
In January and February, the earning on this account was over Rs 30 crore.
The railways issues sleeper class tickets upto 700-800 waitlist in case of each train knowing fully well that even 50% of these would not be confirmed. A quick analysis of status of tickets for 33 trains for June 30 at New Delhi station showed that average waitlist ticket in sleeper class category is 208. While the minimum waitlist is 60 the maximum waitlist is 482.
Data analysis of third AC tickets for the same 33 trains for June 26 showed that average waiting time for clearance of a waitlist ticket is 60 days and railways were issuing tickets with waitlist of 181. “This is a perfect case for people to take it to the consumer court. The railways should stop issuing waitlist ticket after a certain limit.
Since they know how many tickets usually get conformed, they should put a cap on this. This is because someone with a hardcopy waitlist ticket is not allowed to enter the reserved bogies and etickets are not even considered as valid tickets. Such people need to buy a hardcopy general ticket from the counter,” said Tarun Gumber, an advocate.
A passenger is entitled to a refund for a ticket that does not get confirmed, but the railways deduct Rs 20. This is a consumer-unfriendly practice, say many. They add that provision must be made for complete refund.
Passengers said that the window period of four months for booking a ticket has adversely impacted the availability of confirmed tickets. This was introduced this February. “Within a maximum of 60-70 days all tickets are booked. So, what option people have than going for a Tatkal ticket and when you don’t get it normally, you approach a tout. The railways have created this vicious circle to harass passengers,” said Sushil Mohapatra, a chartered accountant who got a Tatkal ticket for his wife after waiting six hours at Gurgaon booking counter.
An RTI reply from railways showed that between 2005 and 2011, it earned Rs 750 crore on account of cancellations of e-tickets alone. Thousands of hardcopy tickets are also cancelled everyday.
Indian Railway Turn Around News 
Leave a comment