Rail ticket plan to help rural unemployed

The railways will soon permit unemployed youth in rural areas to buy unreserved railway tickets in bulk and sell them to passengers at a profit of 50 paise per ticket.

This scheme - termed the Gramin Ticket Booking Service - is being tried out on a pilot basis in the East Central Railway, which is in charge of Bihar's extensive rail network. It will be extended to the rest of the country at a later stage.

Rail Bhavan believes the scheme will help reduce queues at railway stations as passengers in rural areas will be able to buy tickets from a neighbourhood ticket vendor instead of having to depend on the crowded ticket counter at the railway station.

Estimates suggest that vendors may be able to sell at least 200 tickets per day and earn over Rs 100 per day.

Apart from this, the scheme may have other implications - like the political benefit arising out of the huge number of youth who may be issued licences to vend tickets. Railway Minister Lalu Prasad could well reap some political mileage out of the project.

According to railway officials, applications for ticket vending contracts will be screened by officers in the commercial departments at railway divisions. The applicants will have to submit affidavits stating they do not have any source of income. Sources say SC, ST and OBC applicants will be given preference.

The railways plan to print tickets in a particular colour (most probably pink) in order to distinguish these tickets from the yellow-coloured stubs issued for short journey, unreserved travel at railway station counters.

In order to prevent forgery, these tickets would also have some security features printed on them. This will also help the ministry track the vendor who sold the ticket.

Another related scheme is the Jansadharan ticket booking scheme, under which unemployed youth can set up their own computerised ticket vending units by using a ticketing software provided by the railways. The earnings on this will be one rupee per ticket.