Difficulties in reserving berths for my family in different trains in Indian Railways
18 Nov, 2013Dear Sir,
I have experienced the difficulties of reserving a few berths for my family in different trains to move them to and fro Secu -Hwh -YPR,SBC from 03 Dec to 16 Dec.
First my query :
What is the exact authority to retain a substantial numbers of seats/berths out of the purview of online (through ITCTC or through Railways Reservation Offices) as discretionary as naive as High Railways Officials Quota? Who are these larger than life High Officials for whom almost 25 % of the general seats/berths are kept away from the super server central processing system which cost crores of money from the exchequers?
Exactly the same for all other category of discretionary quota which are kept out side the online reservation system? What exactly the order and who has given those order or it is left to some clerks inside the booking office?
The options given to book a ticket even after giving preferences for seats /berths against each passenger are i) None ii) At Least one Lower Berth iii) All the berths in one coach etc. Who all are party to this most TOUT/AGENT/DISHONEST BOOKING clerk friendly options programmed into the computer system? I challenged the members of the Railways Board to come and sit down in their air conditioned offices with their loyal officers to watch with horror how those options are actually translated into actually denying LOWER Berths despite giving the preferences against the name of the passengers. These so called riders must be critically examined forthwith and demonstrated in full public view how it delivers without any bias. Whole system is tailor made to deny legitimate travellers especially when travelling with family at least one Lower berth which is essential during a journey by train. We have ISRO Scientists who are planning to send space craft to MARS. I am sure they will be able to fix this simple problem of JIGRI POGRI at the central server level.
Now tell me which is the exact authority debarring IRCTC not to make each and every berth/seat in each and every class and category with due mention of allocation seats /berths to all those HO, FT ,CK, PH, HP,RO ,DF,GN,DP,SS,RE & LD in your site itself and compelling the officials to book those SO CALLED HIGH RAILWAYS OFFICIAL etc. quota through the central server online leaving nothing to the corrupt to the core booking clerks aided by the top officials in the ministry of railways who arrange posting of their favourites to those most sought after places.
Whenever one goes to buy a ticket in any type of Cinema Hall in any place in the country he is shown the seating plan with seat numbers on a plain sheet of paper and asked him/her to pick the right choice for him/her. In your site no such option is available giving rise to all types of avoidable arguments all around. Once a set of parameters (howsoever bad those parameters may be….like allotments of natural resources to big bad business houses) your site can easily make it possible to show the availability of seats with a hyper active button. This will not only help the passenger to choose and confirm a lots of hera pheri being done at the central server system by putting a programme whose only aim is to deny LOWER seats in First Come First Serve BASIS.
I am sure the apex level be involved as direction to merge all the berths /seat in the general category with some riders visible to one and all will bring transparency as well as expedite preparation of charts in time at the starting stations. This will end the tyranny of the corrupt to the core reservation officials across the country.
Regards
Haridas Mandal
Lt Col Retd