Chetana: Destination north Bengal

Siliguri, Oct. 24: Ticketless travellers of north Bengal beware.

The Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) plans to run a two-bogey special train — much like the famous “Lal Gari”, or Chetana, of Calcutta — on different routes of the region to catch passengers without ticket and see if railway regulations are being followed on trains.

Chetana is deployed in various sections of the railways in south Bengal to ferry flying squads who check the tickets of people travelling in local trains.

“We are yet to finalise the schedule of the special drive. It’s still in the planning stage,” divisional commercial manager of the NFR and the public relations officer of New Jalpaiguri station Taraknath Bhattacharya told The Telegraph.

He added that all the suspect routes would be covered, including New Jalpaiguri-Haldibari, Siliguri-Aluabari and New Jalpaiguri-Kishanganj.

The stations on these routes have reported stagnation in ticket sales, which appeared contrary to the rise in passenger traffic. It prompted the NFR authorities to conduct surprise checks over the past few months on trains running through these stations.

Around 25 to 30 cases were detected in a day during these surprise checks, railway officials said, bringing the daily average realisation of the NFR to anywhere between Rs 10,000 and Rs 15,000.

“We hope that a special drive would help the railways catch the guilty on a larger scale and put a stop to the practice,” Bhattacharya said.

About a month ago, the NFR had organised such a special drive on the Jalpaiguri-New Jalpaiguri route and caught 50 SFI members, who were penalised.

“The drive will also be against those on board who violate the railway norms by fagging or boozing inside the compartments or in the bathrooms or vestibules,” Bhattacharya said. “Even on-duty railway staff, like the ticket conductor or the travelling ticket examiner (TTE), will not be spared if found guilty.”

Sources at the New Jalpaiguri railway station said a special flying squad has been formed for the purpose, comprising TTEs and men from the RPF and GRP.

A senior railway official said: “Those who fail to pay the penalty will be charge-sheeted and booked under relevant legal codes. However, ticketless travellers from poorer sections of the society may be spared on occasions on humanitarian grounds.”