Western Railway collects Rs 6.45 cr from ticketless travellers

The Western Railway (WR) has collected Rs 6.45 crore from as many as 1.71 lakh ticketless travellers during July.
"In continuation of our efforts to curb the practise of ticketless travelling, WR conducted regular checks during the month of July, 2015 where in 1.71 lakh cases of ticketless/irregular travel including unbooked luggage cases were detected, resulting in recovery of around Rs 6.45 crore," a statement issued by Western Railway said.
This amount is 12.68 per cent more than the corresponding month of last year," it said, adding WR has regularly taken innovative steps.
"Senior officers are closely monitoring the revenue loss due to ticketless travel and such other irregularities. During July, 52 cases of illegal transfer of reserved tickets were detected and an amount of over Rs 46,000 was realised," the statement said.

While 1,289 beggars and unauthorised hawkers were apprehended, 466 were evicted, 487 charged. From them Rs 1.32 lakh was collected as a penalty.
Moreover, 336 beggars and hawkers were prosecuted of which 249 were fined from whom Rs 21,000 was recovered and 87 of them were sent to jail.

Also, during this period, 195 checks were conducted against touts and other anti-social elements by commercial department. As a result, 222 persons were apprehended and prosecuted and fined under various sections of Railways Act, it added.
WR General Manager G C Agrawal has emphasised the need of further improving the same in future, it added.

In addition, WR has urged all rail users to buy a railway ticket and travel with dignity.