Tickets still end up in touts' hands

Despite the transfer of all 14 staff of Chittagong Railway Station's ticket counters and a team of Railway Nirapatta Bahini (RNB) of Chittagong, tickets are still ending up in the hands of touts.
Many train passengers harassed by these touts blamed a nexus among the railway staff of the security and commercial departments and touts for the continuation of the malpractice.
On a surprise visit to the station on July 21, Obaidul Quader, at that time the communications and railways minister, ordered the immediate transfer, stating that Chittagong had the worst record of such malpractice.
However, according to newspaper reports in the last two months, law enforcers, aided by railway authorities, arrested 12 touts with some 100 Dhaka-Chittagong inter-city train tickets from in and outside the station.
“The touts are still there,” said Md Hafiz, a Chittagong University student who regularly travels the route. “You just have to stand in the station and in no time the touts approach you with tickets,” he said.
The touts usually demand at least two to three times the usual price, said some of the affected passengers, adding that ticket touting would not be possible without the assistance of booking clerks and RNB personnel.
On September 24, Detective Branch of Police arrested two men, including an RNB member, with 64 tickets from before the station.
The RNB member, Md Lutfor Rahman alias Jewel, possessing 59 tickets and Tk 25,910, proceeds from the ticket sale, confessed during interrogation of the nexus, said Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police Tareq Ahmed.
The booking clerks, RNB members and touts are an organised syndicate selling tickets on the black market for a long time, he said.
However, Chittagong Railway Station Manager AA Shamsul Alam refuted the allegations of the involvement of booking clerks and RNB members in selling tickets on the black market.
The touts probably buy tickets from the counters at the station, he said, adding that the September 24 arrest was an isolated incident and they had increased monitoring to stop touting of tickets.
Chief Commercial Manager of Bangladesh Railway (East) Md Habibur Rahman also refuted the allegations of the involvement of booking clerks and RNB members in touting tickets.
He, however, hoped that the malpractice would stop after ticket prices were increased from October 1 as the black market tickets would be pricier and hence passengers would find it viable to travel by bus instead.