Travel agents cry foul over Railways reservation move

Travel agents cry foul over Railways reservation move

Mumbai:  A scheme launched in this year’s budget by railways to establish computerised ticketing centres run by agents across the country through public private partnership was on Monday challenged in the Supreme Court.

The railways had brought about the idea of – Yatri Ticket Suvidha Kendra – after putting to end bookings by around 1,500 authorised agents who were banned from entry into computerised reservation centres of the railways since May 28 this year on the ground that “the way they operated in the premises of the reservation centres was bringing disrepute to the railways”.

A bench headed by Justice A.R.Dave has issued notice to the Centre, Railways and the IRCTC on the plea filed by the Rai Travelers Service Agents.

“The new scheme is against an order of the Supreme Court in 1985 whereby they appointed Rail Travelers Service Agents. The government could not have done this without seeking a modification order from the Supreme Court,”said Dinanath Mehrotra, President of the East India Traveller Agents Association.

Mehrotra said the main bone of contention was that “each agent should have office premises outside railway stations or existing reservation centres equipped with adequate infrastructure.

Such premises need to be properly maintained with adequate conveniences and amenities in the vicinity so as to accommodate visit of sufficient number of customers, which was a very costly proposition”.The agents are also opposed to the “exorbitant” one-time non-refundable registration fee of Rs 5 Lakh the Railways is asking each one of them to pay on allotment of license.

“Each one of the agent cater to around 500-600 passengers per day, and as many as 25,000 to 30,000 employees are working for these authorised agents across the country.We are doing a great service to those who are unable to stand in the queue and book their tickets . The RTSAs earlier had separate counters at all the Computerised Reservation Centres. Suddenly they banned our entry and now ask us to set up offices outside railway premises. This is injustice,” says Mehrotra.