Railway ministry to re-examine ticket booking system for lawmakers

NEW DELHI: The Central Information Commission (CIC) has asked the rail ministry to revisit the system of booking train tickets for parliamentarians after an RTI

NEW DELHI: The Central Information Commission (CIC) has asked the rail ministry to revisit the system of booking train tickets for parliamentarians after an RTI activist demanded MPs – and not tax-payers – should foot the bill for unused tickets.

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The activist had complained that MPs — who get to travel free on public expense — often made multiple booking for a single journey to give themselves elbow room to make last-minute change in plans. And in quite a few cases, they did not bother to cancel the extra tickets. The railways had not bothered to fix the lacunae because it didn’t lose in the bargain. It was paid for the bookings from the exchequer for every ticket, irrespective of whether the MP eventually travelled or not.

But this, activist Subhash Chandra Agrawal argued before the information watchdog, was an abuse of the facility extended to MPs letting them undertake free travel in first class. Besides, he pointed out that the railways too had conceded there were instances where unscrupulous elements exploited the system, booking tickets on basis of forged letters from MPs .

Agrawal asked the commission for directions to maintain records of tickets booked and cancelled by MPs. Once such instances were recorded, MPs could also be made to pay for the unutilised tickets. CIC commissioner Bimal Julka said the railways acknowledged there were “certain lacunae” in the priority reservation for parliamentarians. “It was noted that the present arrangement has the potential of a possible misuse by the authorities concerned,” the commission said, recommending that it would be “prudent” for the railways to revisit its practice.