GUWAHATI, April 23 - Maligaon-headquartered Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) has intensified drive against people travelling without tickets and the zonal railway has succeeded in detecting over 5.71 lakh such cases during the recently ended 2016-17 financial year.
NFR Chief Public Relations Officer PJ Sharma said that during the April 2016 to March 2017 period, NFR detected over 5.71 lakh cases of ticketless travelling by passengers as against 4.65 lakh cases in 2015-16.
�This is an increase of 22.8 per cent year-on-year,� said Sharma.
Similarly, the NFR zone also reported an increase of over 20 per cent in the penalty earned from ticketless travellers who were detected.
�The penalty earning from such passengers increased to Rs 36.12 crore in 2016-17 as against Rs 30.05 crore in 2015-16, an increase of 20.2 per cent on an annual basis,� said Sharma. He added, "NFR officials have been conducting surprise ticket checking drive in Mail, Express and Passenger trains.�
As per Section 137 of the Indian Railway Act of 1989, travelling without ticket, travelling with improper ticket or with un-booked luggage are offences punishable by imprisonment or fine or both.
�To discourage ticketless travelling, NFR has put systems in place whereby surprise ticket checking drive is conducted by Flying Ticket Checking Squads of divisions as well as the headquarters,� Sharma said.
NFR has five divisions � Tinsukia, Lumding, Rangiya, Alipurduar and Katihar.
Sharma said that �Fortress� checks have been intensified at various railway stations. �For this officers are nominated at HQ and divisional levels from different department who are accompanied by security personal from Railway Protection Force (RPF) and Government Railway Police (GRP),� said the NFR CPRO.
He added that the drive against such passengers will be further intensified in this fiscal.
�The General Manager of NFR has instructed all to keep up the momentum of such drive so that ticketless travelling is discouraged and bona-fide travelers can have a smooth journey," Sharma said.
