Indian Railways ticketless travellers beware! Penalty set to be hiked to Rs 1000

Indian Railways ticketless travellers should be worried, very worried indeed! Railways is in the process of launching a crackdown against ticketless travel and the penalties are soaring high and are guaranteed to make these illegal journeymen cringe. This step will certainly give them second thoughts about travelling without tickets in the trains, or crossing tracks. The first off the blocks is Western Railway (WR), which has proposed a 4-time increase in fines levied! Yes, you read that right!
 
For Indian Railways ticketless travellers in the local trains and those who cross tracks, this is really bad news as the Western Railway section authorities have proposed to spike the penalty from Rs 250 to Rs 1,000 to check the practice fully. A proposal to this effect was presented before Ashwani Lohani, Chairman of Railway Board during his visit to the city last week, said a DNA report.
 
The Railway authorities are hopeful that the move will discourage truant behaviour, said the report, adding that in the month of April, Western Railway registered 3.94 lakh cases of ticketless travel including carrying unbooked luggage. Due to stringent action, fines from such cases amounted to Rs 15.34 crore - a 26 per cent rise from April 2017.
 
Further, the Railway authorities have reportedly urged the Railway Board to allow Ticket Checkers (TCs) and Station Masters to catch and levy fines on the passengers caught trespassing, crossing tracks and travelling in wrong coaches (such as Ladies, First Class or Divyang). The officials have also sought to equip TCs with hand-held devices so that they can levy spot fines in the said cases and other such offences, the report added.
 
Earlier, Indian Railways also decided to support the Maharashtra government’s plastic bag ban policy, and launched a crackdown against passengers if caught violating the rule. 
 
A PTI report quoted Central Railway Chief Commercial Manager Shailendra Kumar as saying, “We are in touch with state government agencies to enforce the ban. After getting the nod of state authorities, we will start penalising passengers who are in possession of banned plastic items.”
 
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Western Railway had formed teams to implement the ban and impose fine on violators, its chief spokesperson Ravinder Bhakar reportedly said, adding that under the Swachh Bharat Mission, Western Railway had installed plastic bottle crushing machines at several stations to dispose of plastic waste in an environment-friendly manner.