Railways track down touts

PUNE, May 5: If you desperately need a train reservation for the family and are not too fussy about travelling under an assumed name, age an...

PUNE, May 5: If you desperately need a train reservation for the family and are not too fussy about travelling under an assumed name, age and address, chances are your work will be done, though of course at a price. Touts cashing in on the long waiting lists have become a serious problem for Indian Railways.

Pune, however, has made an attempt to curb this malpractice and 10 people have been caught in the past one month at the Pune Railway Station trying to get reservations under fake names so that they can later be sold along with a fat commission to needy customers.

The modus operandi of agents is to reserve tickets for entire families of Pandes and Sharmas and Vermas in the north-bound trains, making the surnames more southern for the south-bound trains. Either a susceptible Sharma or Verma is found to fit the bill or desperate commuters are asked to travel under a fake name.

While cases have been registered against them, the stern drive against touts is a part of the Vigilance Department directive aimed at making summer holiday travel more comfortable for commuters. Two officers and five inspectors are conducting surprise checks at all computerised reservation offices in a bid to curb malpractices during the season.

The drive, launched in April and is to continue till June, was spurred on by corresponding drives launched by Central Railway and Western Railway, where suspicious names on train reservation lists are being published in newspapers and the people asked to contact the railways with proof of their name and address. Reservations of those failing to do so are cancelled.

Mumbai has even gone in for secret cameras at reservation offices to identify faces which appear suspicious.

According to Railway spokesperson, Y K Singh, the drive was undertaken after officials from the Vigilance department of Central Railway conducted surprise checks at Khadki, Chinchwad, Deccan Gymkhana, Raviwar Peth and Pune city reservation offices last month. 8220;We have only nine authorised agents in the city and touts generally purchase tickets under vague names like A Pande, B Pande, C Pande, without being more specific so that they can be handed out to any needy traveller,8221; he says. When surnames like Pande, Mishra and Sharma are used it is easy to find takers in north-bound trains, he adds.

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The RPF and senior staff members from the railways are patrolling the five computerised reservation offices in the city to check for suspicious characters carrying more than one form and with separate addresses. A lookout is also being maintained for agents who purchase reserved tickets in advance and sell them on the platform to emergency travellers.