If you ever travel in trains there would definitely be several instances where you would have hurried to get tickets in the festive seasons when the demand for the trains is the highest. Often, there are chances where you cannot even book a ticket. IBN's Cobrapost had exposed the corrupt officials, police and travel agencies who buncoed the eager travelers.

Under the veneer of a travel agent, an undercover reporter had met with Kanhaiya, a reservation clerk at the reservation office in New Delhi. With the recent operation that unveiled the tatkal booking scam, the clerk was alert but that didn't stop him from discussing business.

He also admitted that he was involved in several scams earlier selling illegal tickets. “Agent purchase tickets well in advance for the festive seasons worth lakhs of rupees and the sell them at higher prices as the passengers wouldn't back out to pay money for the tickets,” he revealed.
The prices are as high as Rs 2000 for a ticket that legally purchased would cost Rs 1100.

Shocking revelation had been unveiled after the undercover agent had met with a clerk Ghanshyam through Kanhaiyalal at the Nizamuddin Station reservation office. He had agreed to help with even 100 illegal tickets per day since he would be in charge of the chart preparations. He said he could approve any number of waiting list tickets or RAC tickets that were brought.

He said that booking on a fake name or a real name and address could be done easily.
"Use fake names like Sudhir, Ganesh, Vinod, Mehboob. Simple names, no surnames. The age may vary between 25 and 35 years in the forms”, he said.

So, with such reservation clerks there is no way in the world you can get a ticket confirmed unless you book several months in advance like the touts who take up the same practice too.

When will the government react against officers like Ghanshyam and Kanhaiyalal and make the public services available to the real public?

(AW- Anil)