For a tatkal ticket,minimum 8-hour long queue

Amar and Ravi have been coming here for one week,but haven’t managed to get tickets under the tatkal category. Most of the tickets,they say,are sold as soon

as the counter opens. So they decided to come at midnight.

By 2 am,20 more people,including women,come to the counter. All want tickets.

With the holiday season at its peak,train tickets under the tatkal category vanish as soon as the window opens.

This gets frustrating,as a tatkal ticket is the only way to reserve a seat in train — waiting list is usually in hundreds.

Amar is in the city to take his sister,who studies in a Chandigarh college,back home for vacations.

“I want two seats in the Punjab Mail,but haven’t been able to get the tickets so far. There is no law and order and no one speaks properly,” he said. “I have come at midnight to get the tickets as soon as the window opens in the morning.”

Ravi,who wants to go to Puri,said,“Everything is so chaotic and poorly managed. Of the four booking counters,computer at one is out of order. There is no system and the officials are so slow. They take ten minute to book a ticket and then suddenly walk away from their seats.”

Some complained that the counter didn’t open till 9 am on many days.

Meenakshi,who came to the counter at 3 am on Monday night but could not get a ticket,came at 1 am on Tuesday.

She wanted a ticket to go Mumbai.

“The staff has no manners. Policeman should be deployed here to maintain law and order,as when

officials misbehave,the people misbehave and there is complete chaos. At times,people even get hurt.”

The situation is not very different at the other two reservation centres in

Sector 43 and at the railway station.

At the railway station,many complain,the ticket counter is quite at a distance from the station.

Ambala Divisional Railway Manager (DRM) Y P Singh said,“The sale of tickets has been shifted to a common place,as earlier there used to be a heavy rush right outside the railway station.”

“As far as the tatkal tickets are concerned,we have a fixed quota and booking is done at every counter. So as soon as the counter opens,the tickets are sold,” he added.

Almost all trains from the city have not more than 10 to 12 seats under the tatkal quota,under which seats can be reserved by paying extra.