Ctg train tickets in hand of touts
Angry ticket seekers demonstrated at Chittagong Railway Station when the fourth person in the queue failed to get tickets 20 minutes after opening of sale yesterday morning.
Alleging illegal sale of tickets, they besieged the station manager's room for more than one hour till Rapid Action Battalion arrived there around 11:00am and calmed down the situation.
Victims said ticket sale began at 9:00am yesterday, and around 9:20am the booking clerk (ticket seller) announced that all the advanced AC tickets of Dhaka bound Turna Nishita and Mahangar Godhuli for March 26 were sold out.
Ferdous Alam, a retired government staff, who had been standing in the queue since 6:30am, failed to collect any ticket though he was the fourth person.
"I asked for four AC tickets for Dhaka bound Turna Nishita Express for March 26. But the booking clerk told me that there was no more ticket for that day”, he said.
Nazmul Huda, a software engineer and another ticket seeker, said computerised records showed that 111 AC tickets of Mahanagar Godhuli were sold within 20 minutes, when only three persons in the queue could buy tickets from the counter fixed for selling AC tickets.
A ticket seeker can legally buy at best four tickets at a time, but five tickets were sold from counter-8 at one time, he added.
Abdullah Al Mamun, another ticket buyer, blamed a section of the station staff for creating artificial crisis of tickets so that they could sell them in black market at higher prices.
Referring to the record, he said, “It shows sale of 67 AC tickets from counter-6, but the railway authorities never sell AC tickets at any other counter except a particular counter”.
The station authorities sat with the protesting ticket seekers in presence of the Rab men and submitted a written complaint, addressed to Divisional Commercial Officer of Railway (East), for proper legal actions in this connection.
Contacted, Chittagong Railway Station Manager AA Samsul Alam said, “We will inform it to the higher authorities so that they take necessary actions against the responsible persons”.
Asked about link of the railway staffs to such crimes, he said the authorities would look into the matter.
Meanwhile, the Government Railway Police (GRP) caught a person when he was selling tickets illegally at Chittagong Railway Station on Thursday night.
The arrestee, Sanjib Sen, 37, hailed from Ratanpur village under Patiya upazila, Chittagong.
GRP members have seized 12 tickets of different routes from his possession, including six tickets of Dhaka bound Turna Nishita and two tickets of Sylhet bound Paharika Express, said Sub-inspector Osman Goni. A case was filed in this connection with GRP Thursday night.
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