RPF arrested 341 IRCTC agents involved in ticket touting under month-long pan-India drive 'Operation Uplabdh'

Under the month-long pan India drive, Operation Uplabdh, in March 2022, the Railway Protection Force (RPF) arrested 1,459 touts out of which 341 were authorized Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) agents who were found to be indulged in the touting of railway tickets, said an official statement by the Railway Ministry.

"The drive was immensely successful and resulted in the arrest of 1,459 touts, out of which 341 were authorized IRCTC agents, indulged in the touting of railway tickets. The process of blacklisting these IRCTC agents and blocking as many as 366 IRCTC agent IDs and 6751 personal Ids is being undertaken," said the statement.

The statement also revealed that the arrest of touts was about 3.64 times the ones of the previous month i.e. February 2022.

"With the restoration of long-distance train services and the likelihood of the festival and summer rush, a sharp rise in demand of reserved train accommodation was expected in the month of March 2022," the Ministry stated.

Taking note of the input, Railway Protection Force (RPF) launched a Pan India drive against the activities of touts throughout the country in the Month of March 2022.

"The field units of RPF gathered inputs from the field, digital and cyber world, collated, verified and analyzed information and started the drive across the nation from 1 March 2022," it said further.

RPF has recovered and blocked the tickets of future journeys worth more than Rs 65 Lakhs cornered illegally by these touts, thus making the seats available to the bonafide passengers.

Operation Upalabdh has been able to curb the activities of touts substantially and make railway tickets available to the common man.

Indian Railways have advised the common public not to procure tickets from unauthorized persons as it is not only likely to be forfeited once detected but may also land the buyer in legal trouble.

( With inputs from ANI )