IRCTC Tout Scam: CR spares school kids whose tickets have been blocked

IRCTC Tout Scam: CR spares school kids whose tickets have been blocked

As a relief to students, the central railway authorities have decided to help the 550-odd school children and their teachers whose tickets got frozen as part of the investigations into a multi-crore ticket touting scam busted by the Railway Protection Force (RPF).

These tickets had all been booked online from the IRCTC website by the touts arrested as part of the scam. Although their are some legal obstacles, railways has chalked out a plan to ensure that students’ travel unhindered. This has however, not gone down well with some railway officials.

The decision was taken by General Manager, Central Railway Mr.S.K.Sood and was conveyed to the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), when the latter’s Managing Director Dr.A.K.Manocha came calling upon Sood. Narendra Patil, Chief Spokesperson of CR said, “The decision was taken by the general manager so that these children don’t suffer by missing their school-sponsored study tours. A note has been handed to the IRCTC about this.”

The railways have found out that the confiscated tickets – more than 4,500 of them worth over Rs.2 crores – are now the property of the court and the railways cannot de-freeze them without the consent of the court. The entire process would take up considerable time.

To overcome the legal glitch, the railways has come up with an alternate plan. They will allow these children to buy tickets afresh and then have them confirmed by the railways. Among the schools which have had tickets of their children frozen include the Byramji Jeejibhoy Parsi Convent School at Charni Road, the Convent of Jesus and Mary School at Fort, the PG Garodia school at Ghatkopar, Don Bosco school at Borivali and the SM Shetty school at Powai.

“Among the blocked tickets were 550 tickets booked by five schools that had planned trips to Goa, Mangalore and Rajkot,” a CR official said. “Some educational institutions approached the Union human resource development minister, Smriti Irani, who asked the CR top brass to find a way out for their smooth travel.”

A section of officials are not too happy about the de-freeze or the leniency shown to schools. “The fact remains that many schools, instead of approaching the railway authorities for group bookings, approach travel agents without verifying the latter’s antecedents. It sends out a wrong signal. It should be a lesson to all schools. There have been earlier cases too of school children going on study tours on tickets booked from dubious sources,” said one of the officials.