Railways conduct special drive against commuters without tickets

NASHIK: The Bhusawal division of Central Railways, through their special drive has collected a total amount of Rs 6.94 lakh as fine from 1,812 people for travelling without a proper ticket.
A total of 1,199 people were caught travelling without a ticket while 575 were caught travelling without a proper ticket.
"The special drive was conducted last week at every station, across the division with the staff of various departments.It was found that a lot of people travelled without proper tickets and action was carried out," a senior officer from the railways said.
Local travellers usually jump in to trains while it is departing. On getting caught, passengers make up excuses about how they had no time to buy a ticket. "Most people were caught travelling between the major stations and the nearby ones. These are the regular travellers who have a sense of how to skip the railway officers," the officer said.
The railways will now conduct such drives at regular intervals to reduce the tendency of travelling without a ticket. "The fact that we caught an average of 260 people travelling without a ticket and earned around Rs 99,000 per day, we believe there is scope for disciplining commuters," the officer added.
Alarmed over falling window bookings the Bhusawal Division of Central Railways opened up a special drive against those travelling without tickets last week during which 1,812 passengers were caught for travelling without proper tickets.
The railways took up a special drive against those travelling without tickets and for the purpose it pooled in its staff from the various offices to conduct the operation. This resulted in penalising 1,812 passengers which resulted in collection of fine of Rs 6.94 lakh.
The total numbers of people travelling without proper tickets stood at 1,199 while those travelling without proper tickets were 575.
"The drive was affected at every station across the division with the staff from the various departments pooled in for the action. It was noticed that there were lot of people who travelled without proper tickets and hence action was carried out," a senior officer from the railways said.
Generally there are local travellers who jump in the trains at last moment and when caught up try to make up excuses saying they had no time to buy the ticket. "We have observed that these people are the ones who actually risk travelling without tickets for no reasons. Most of the people caught were travelling between the major stations and nearby ones. They are the regular travellers who have the sense of how to skip the railway officers whenever required," the officer pointed out.
The Railways has now decided to the conduct such drives at regular intervals so that the tendency of commuters travelling without tickets goes down. "The fact that we caught on average 260 people travelling without proper tickets and earned revenue of around Rs 99,000 per day we believe there is enough scope for disciplining the commuters," the officer said.