Traveling without ticket will be banned during the festive season, Railways will start a special campaign, policemen should also be cautious now!

New Delhi : The Railway Ministry has decided to launch a special ticket checking campaign to keep an eye on ticketless passengers including policemen during festivals. In a letter written to the General Managers of 17 zones on September 20, the Railway Ministry has asked to launch a special campaign against ticketless and unauthorized passengers between October 1 to October 15 and October 25 to November 10 and take appropriate action under the provisions of the Railway Act of 1989.

According to railway commercial officers who are part of the regular drive being carried out in various railway zones, there is a rush during festivals and at that time, along with common people, policemen will also be their target as they are among the top violators. An officer said that in our recent surprise check between Ghaziabad and Kanpur, we found hundreds of policemen travelling without tickets in air-conditioned coaches of various express and mail trains. When we fined them, initially they refused to pay and threatened us with dire consequences.

Ticket inspectors of the North Central Railway zone said they want to focus on policemen and other unauthorised travellers as they create trouble for passengers with valid tickets. When asked about the number of policemen caught travelling without ticket in recent times, a railway spokesperson of Prayagraj division said, “We do not maintain separate data for policemen. But in the last three months, that is, June, July and August, 1,17,633 passengers were caught travelling without ticket in Prayagraj division alone under North Central Railway zone and a fine of Rs 9,14,58,171 was imposed on them.”

Train ticket examiners also believe that policemen create the most problems as they not only break the law by travelling without ticket but also forcibly force legitimate passengers to share their seats and clash with railway staff over action. Sanjay Singh, president of the Indian Railway Ticket Checking Personnel Association, said that dealing with ticketless policemen is a real nightmare as they not only misbehave with us but often threaten to register fake cases against us to harass us. On an application made under the RTI Act by a person named Chandra Shekhar Gaur, the Railways informed that in the financial year 2023-24, 361.045 lakh passengers were caught travelling without ticket or unauthorized ticket and a fine of Rs 2231.74 crore was collected from them.