Indian Railways arrested 3511 persons in relation to ticketing malpractices for the April -October period FY20.
This was stated by Union Railway Minister Piyush Goyal in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday.
The details of persons arrested in the three previous years are as follows:-
| Year | No. of cases registered | No. of persons arrested |
| 2016 | 2082 | 2441 |
| 2017 | 1859 | 2060 |
| 2018 | 2843 | 3192 |
| 2019 (upto October) | 2990 | 3511 |
To streamline the reservation system and to curb ticketing malpractices, IR has implemented a number of preventive and punitive measures. They are as under:-
- Tickets cannot be booked on abbreviated names.
- Carrying of prescribed identity proof is compulsory for one of the passengers.
- Regular checks are done at passenger reservation system (PRS) centres, booking offices, platforms and trains to prevent unauthorized ticketing activities including the use of scripting software.
- Checks are conducted on trains to detect cases of impersonation.
- CCTV Surveillance at reservation offices.
- In case of online booking of tickets, checks have been applied on minimum time required to enter the passenger details and Captcha. No ticket can be booked before 35 seconds. User IDs are checked daily and those doing malpractices like fast booking of tickets are deactivated.
- Setting a limit of booking six tickets per user id per month by IRCTC portal and 12 a month in case the id is Aadhar linked.
- The authorized agents of IRCTC have been restricted from booking tickets during the first 15 minutes of opening of Advance Reservation Period (ARP) booking and Tatkal booking.
- General public are made aware using public Address System and media, not to buy tickets from touts.
- Additional PRS counters are opened during peak seasons at various locations.
- Special trains run during peak seasions.
- PRS streamlined by automatic preparation of reservation charts at least four hours prior to train departure. This helps in allowing booking of vacant accommodation thereafter till preparation of second reservation charts.
- ‘Vikalp’ scheme to provide alternative confirmed accommodation to waitlisted passengers in another train having vacant accommodation.