Demonetisation effect: Ticketless penalty recovery drops on Western Railway

Like in other fields, the note ban has also affected recovery of penalty for ticket-less travel on the Western Railway (WR).

Penalty from ticket-less travellers in November went down by nearly 30 per cent as compared to the corresponding month of the last year, said a senior WR official today.

Owing to demonetisation, announced on November 8, realisation and collection of penalty from ticket-less travellers has been adversely affected, he said.

"Many a time our ticket collectors had to let go ticket-less passengers when they had only demonetised Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes to offer for penalty for lack of loose change,"

Meanwhile, the Public Relations Department of WR, in a statement, said it conducted regular checks in November during which more than 1.98 lakh cases of ticket-less or irregular travel, including unbooked luggage cases, were detected.

This resulted in recovery of Rs.8.78 crore, which is is 29.20 per cent less than the corresponding month of the last year.

"During the month, 73 cases of illegal transfer of reserved tickets were detected. Besides, 1,105 beggars and unauthorised hawkers were apprehended, evicted, fined and more than 118 persons were sent to jail," said the release.

"During this period, 196 checks were conducted against touts and other anti-social elements by WRs commercial department. As a result, 216 persons were apprehended and prosecuted and fined under various sections of Railways Act.

During the month of November, 155 schoolchildren above 12 years of age were found travelling in ladies compartments of suburban trains.

Headquartered at Churchgate, South Mumbai, WR's network is divided into six operating divisions — Ahmedabad, Rajkot, Bhavnagar, Ratlam, Mumbai and Vadodara.