It is no secret that Indian Railways is the most used form of transport in India. Millions of commuter’s board trains every day from every nook and corner of the country.
Here’s some fresh news, guess how many people travel through these trains without ticket?
It’s a staggering 1.38 million (13,87,087 to be exact) and that’s just in one month (October 2011). Northern Railway recorded most number of offences (3.04 lakhs), followed by Eastern Railway (2.13 lakhs) and Western Railway (1.55 lakhs).
Here is a shocker. From all these people travelling without a ticket, a mere Rs.5.52 lakhs was collected as fine; that’s not even 50 paisa per person.
I really doubt how that is ever possible. Section 337 of Offences and Penalties under IRA states a minimum punishment of Rs.500 or Rs.1000 for ‘Fraudulently travelling or attempting to travel without proper pass or ticket’.
So the only reason could be that most of these offending people were simply let off…