New Delhi19 hours agoWriter: Sunil Singh Baghel
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Railways have had to cancel PNRs of 2.26 crore waiting railway passengers due to non-confirmation of tickets in two years. On the other hand, even 40% of the 2.55 crore berths reserved under the Emergency Quota (EQ) or in common parlance are not being utilized. During the two years of Kovid, only 10% and 25% could be used.
But the record of 7 years before Kovid from 2013 also shows that even 1 crore berths are not allotted annually from the VIP quota of 2.55 crore berths, whereas for 9 years such a file is stuck in the Railway Ministry regarding this quota, On which the government’s seal is approved, the railways can earn an additional income of 500 to 700 crores annually.
CBI has also said – Crores are being scammed by misusing quota
Questions have been raised in the past on the emergency or VIP quota being given at no extra charge on the lines of Tatkal or premium tickets. In 2016, the CBI itself, while registering a preliminary inquiry, said that crores of games were being played by misusing this quota.
There was also talk of transparency in its allotment, but except the Southern Railway, no railway has taken the initiative to make the system transparent.
Putting the quota in the general pool will get more than 1.5 crore seats
Harsha Shah, a member of the Railway Advisory Committee, says that we have been talking about putting a large part of this quota in the general pool for a long time. With this, more than 1.5 crore annually or 40 thousand additional berths will be available daily for the waiting list passengers.
According to the information received under RTI, 61 lakh waiting tickets have been canceled in 2020-21 and 1 crore 65 lakh waiting tickets in 2021-22.
VIP No charge on ticket, seat allotted till 4 hours in advance
Under emergency, head office quota, 70 thousand berth reserves are kept daily in about 1700 mail-express trains. This is 5% of the total available berths. For booking tickets under this quota, no additional charges are levied on the lines of Tatkal etc. Seat allotment is done up to four hours in advance.
A railway official, on the condition of anonymity, says that the railways can charge an average of Rs 300 per ticket like Tatkal tickets. At present, the VIP quota is around 2.55 crore berths, which means that there can be additional income of up to 700 crores.
The proposal was made in the UPA government, only the file was closed in the NDA government
In 2013, on the initiative of CP Joshi, who was the Railway Minister in the UPA government, a proposal was made to levy the same fee on EQ tickets as Tatkal. Then an additional income of 186 crores was estimated from this quota. Meanwhile, the government changed. In 2016 this file ran again.
The agreement was also reached at the lower level, but after that the file, which was put on hold, is still waiting for the approval of the board. Mandsaur RTI activist Chandrashekhar Gaur, who raised this issue, says that this was only a preliminary estimate, after that the fee has increased.
1500 crores earned from senior citizens during Kovid
Railways limited the concessional fares of 12 categories to just three categories including sportsperson, transgender, war martyr widow, senior citizen. At the same time, under the guise of Kovid, from 2020, concession facility was closed in 53 categories including senior citizens. In 2021-22 itself, the Railways got about 3400 crores by closing the discount of up to 50%.
Where countries around the world are giving extra facilities to senior citizens, India has stopped concession and earned 1500 crores extra from senior citizens.
Ban imposed for the benefit of industrialists
Behind this is the conspiracy of privatization of railways. What do industrialists have to do with senior citizens, transgenders. They only care about earning. His eyes are on the big earning train route. Why would they want to make a concession? -Harsha Shah, Railway Overseas Association, Pune