Isn’t it a daunting task to make a passenger pay Rs 260 for not buying a ticket worth Rs 10? Majority of 68,000 ticketless commuters belong to this category.
They resort to all means to get away with the fine, making things difficult for TTEs. “It results in fights, allegations and sometimes extremely untoward incidents but we have to prepare ourselves for such situations every day,” says a TTE.
Despite challenges, the data, accessed by Outlook under RTI Act, suggests that Indian Railways makes over Rs 3.2 crore per day as fine from these passengers.
From April-December 2018, over 1.83 crore passengers have been fined 867.36 crore for travelling without a ticket or with a wrong ticket.
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Compared to financial year 2017-18, the collection in 2018 (till December) shows a jump of about 25 per cent. Experts contribute this rise to several special drives to check rising instances of travelling without a proper ticket.
When compared to financial year 2012-13, the data for 2018-19 (till December) indicates over 100 per cent increase in collection of fine. In 2012-13, the railways had collected 572.61 crores from 1.37 crore passengers.
However, TTEs narrate unusual instances of encountering ticketless travellers who often risk their lives by jumping off running trains to evade fines.
“Two of my colleagues are facing murder charges because two commuters who they were going to fine in separate cases jumped out of the train on the track and the train coming from the opposite direction crushed them under the wheels. Later, their relatives travelling with them alleged that the TTEs threw them out of the train for not paying the fine,” said a senior TTE requesting anonymity.
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Anil Sharma, a retired TTE, says that the common perception is that most of the TTEs keep the money collected from the ticketless travellers, causing losses to railways.
“A small percentage of TTEs might be doing it but majority risk their lives as they face violent opposition,” he adds.
He narrates an incident of another TTE who is facing allegations of sexual harassment. “The fact was that a ticketless traveller, when asked to pay fine, lodged a false allegation of sexually assaulting his wife,” Sharma said.
A senior TTE, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, narrates an incident where he caught a family travelling with a dog in the AC first class of Delhi-Mumbai Rajdhani.
They hadn’t bought the ticket for the dog and argued that since the dog was sitting on the floor of the train, they didn’t need any ticket for it.
“When I told them the railway rule which mandates a ticket for a dog, they created a ruckus and phoned some powerful politicians who threatened me,” he said.
“I called the railway protection force personnel and made them pay the fine,” the TTE said.
As per the norms, a ticketless traveller, after being caught, must pay the ticket price from the boarding to the destination station along with fine which varies for various classes of coaches and different types of trains.
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The minimum ticket price is Rs 10 and travelling without it may cost Rs 260 with 250 as fine. TTEs say that it’s very difficult to deal with this category of people who often take any extreme step to avoid fine.
“They can jump out of the train, pull out daggers, beat the TTEs and run or sometimes come back with anti-social elements to take out revenge if they are fined,” says one of the heads of a commercial department.
He adds, “We train the TTEs to be calm and courteous with ticketless passengers even if they are provocative.”
