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Commercialpedia Indian Railways commercial circulars and policies

SHRI GOPAL CHINNAYA SHETTY

· 2019-10-30
Historical — likely supersededCircularreservation
Historical — likely superseded. This circular predates 2020 and has probably been replaced. Treat it as a record of what the rule was, not what it is. The official Railway Board PDF always prevails over anything shown here.

No official Railway Board PDF has been traced for this entry yet. The text below was read from the document held in the library.

Date2019-10-30
TypeCommercial Circular
Topicreservation
CurrencyHistorical — likely superseded

Summary

booking of e-tickets including Tatkal tickets, several checks have been

Text of the circular

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA  
MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS 
 
LOK SABHA 
UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 2282 
TO BE ANSWERED ON 04.03.2020 
 
ONLINE TICKET TOUTS 
 
†2282. 
SHRI GOPAL CHINNAYA SHETTY: 
 
   
 
Will the Minister of RAILWAYS be pleased to state: 
 
(a) 
  whether a fraud gang has been unearthed which were booking 
50% tickets under tatkal category in just forty seconds after 
opening of booking using a critical software; 
 
(b) 
  if so, the details thereof along with the names and addresses of 
these offenders; 
 
(c) 
  whether any action has been taken by the Government against 
these offenders; 
 
(d) 
  if so, the details thereof; and 
 
(e) 
  the steps taken by the Government to check such frauds in 
future under tatkal scheme?  
 
 
 
ANSWER 
MINISTER OF RAILWAYS AND COMMERCE & INDUSTRY   
     (SHRI PIYUSH GOYAL) 
 
(a) to (e): A Statement is laid on the Table of the House. 
 
*****

STATEMENT REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PARTS (a) TO (e) OF 
UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 2282 BY SHRI GOPAL CHINNAYA SHETTY 
TO BE ANSWERED IN LOK SABHA ON 04.03.2020 REGARDING ONLINE 
TICKET TOUTS 
 
(a) to (d): Railway Protection Force (RPF) arrested one accused person 
named Ghulam Mustafa suspected of selling illegal Railway ticket 
booking software ANMS on 08.01.2020 in course of enquiry into criminal 
case vide Crime No. 758/2019 dated 30.10.2019 under section 143 of “The 
Railways Act” registered at RPF Post, Yeshwantpur, Bengaluru City. He 
was found to have used certain illegal softwares, advanced hacking 
applications, crypto currency accounts for carrying out of this operation 
and further, during the course of enquiry, a list of 3000 bank branches 
were recovered from his laptop. On the basis of lead given by the 
arrested accused regarding operation of illegal software for e-Ticketing, 
several cases have been registered in RPF Posts across Indian Railways, 
wherein a total of 82 accused persons have been arrested till 25.02.2020 
and are under investigation. Further, in this matter, several cases have 
been 
registered 
by 
State 
Police/Delhi 
police 
which 
are 
under 
investigation. 
 
The illegal software during its operation auto-fills the passenger details 
in form, auto reads the login and submit CAPTCHAs, bypasses bank OTP 
protection and pushes multiple numbers of fictitious IRCTC user IDs 
simultaneously, due to which it facilitates huge number of fictitious 
IRCTC user IDs to jump the queue when window of Tatkal/other booking 
starts and corner simultaneously several confirmed berths in trains. Due 
to pan India action by RPF, all these illegal softwares have been 
suspended and are not being used. In addition to cessation of functioning 
of the illegal softwares, various wings of railways like RPF, IRCTC and 
CRIS have worked together to upgrade the existing security features of 
the PRS system. This has also disrupted the functioning of other 
softwares. Situation is kept under close watch so that any upgradation of 
illegal softwares, still in operation, if any, is responded to in real time and 
even such softwares are not able to indulge in any such malpractices.  
 
--2/-

-2- 
(e): In order to prevent the activities of unscrupulous elements/ touts in 
booking of e-tickets including Tatkal tickets, several checks have been 
deployed by Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) 
including the following: 
 
i. 
Restriction of only 2 Tatkal tickets per user from 1000 hours to 
1200 hours. 
ii. 
Introduction of Random Security Question for Tatkal ticket 
bookings. 
iii. 
Restriction of only one tatkal ticket per day per train to retail 
service providers (agents). 
iv. 
Restriction of creation of only one IRCTC User ID on a given mobile 
number and email ID. 
v. 
A limit of booking 6 Railway tickets by an individual user in a month 
has been set. This has been enhanced to 12 Railway tickets per 
month, if users have linked their IRCTC user ID with their Aadhaar 
number, and at least one of the passengers in the passeng

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