Afroz Alam Sahil, BeyondHeadlines
New Delhi: Railway ticket may not be available on ticket counters, but travel agents, many of whom call themselves ‘authorized’ agents can always get you tickets if you are willing to pay ‘extra’ from anywhere between Rs 200 to 1000. For berths in AC or Rajdhani train it may even go up.
Even though ‘peak season’ is nearly over, railway tickets are still not available for weeks in advance, so called agents, who work as touts can always have a way.
One such agent, on condition of anonymity, tells BeyondHeadlines, “There is always scope for manipulation. You just need the enough money to bribe some officials.” There are some other ways as well.
E- tickets are easily manipulated. Vigilance department, recently, flung into action after an incident of a young man traveling on ‘senior citizen’ quota in the Purushottam Express. It was found that although the reservation chart had age of the concerned person as 60, on his printed ticket it was only 26. The manipulation on printed ticket was done by the travel agent, without his knowledge.
Many travel agents further assure you ’99 per cent confirmed ticket’ under Tatkal sceme if you are ready to shell out extra money. It’s not just in one region or city. Beyondheadlines team saw it happening in at least New Delhi, Kolakta, Muzaffarpur, Betiah, Dhanbad, amongs many others.
