Indian Railways train has reserved seats under VIP/ Emergency Quota. This seats is allotted to Railway Officials or VIPs in case of travel in emergency.
A letter of recommendation issued by a gazetted officer or a concerned VIP is needed to get confirmed seat and it has to be submitted in the office of Station Master also before the start of a journey.
An RTI was filed with South Central Railway to obtain the VIP/ Emergency Quota Allotment Details about the SC DNR SF Express (12791) which originated from Secunderabad Junction and the destination is Danapur Railway Station, Bihar.
The details sought in the RTI in 2 points are as follows :-
From 06-11-2023 to 11-11-2023, how many seats were allotted or number of passengers travelled under VIP Quota/ Emergency Quota in Sleeper Class, 3AC, 2AC, 1AC in SC DNR SF Express. (Kindly provide day wise categorisation of allotted seats).
Kindly provide the designation of each traveller travelled under VIP Quota/ Emergency Quota in SC DNR SF Express from 06-11-2023 to 11-11-2023 in each class. (Sleeper Class, 3AC, 2AC, 1AC)..(Kindly provide day wise categorisation of allotted).
The objective to sought this type of information is to make sure that officials of Indian railways does not involve in corruption by allotting VIP/ Emergency Quota Seats to those persons who are non entitled get seats under this quota.
Reply provided by Central Public Information Officer (CPIO) on the above mentioned RTI is given below :-
Seats allotted from 06-11-2023 to 11-11-2023 under VIP/ Emergency Quota in SC DNR SF Express (12791) are :-
Designation of Travellers who travelled in SC DNR Express (12791) under VIP/ Emergency Quota from 06-11-2023 to 11-11-2023 are as follows :-
Conclusion
CPIO provide the information sought in point number 1 and 2 in RTI.
As per CPIO reply for point number 1, a total of 378 people travelled under VIP/ Emergency Quota in Sleeper, 3AC, 2AC Class of SC DNR SF Express (12791) from 06-11-2023 to 11-11-2023.
But when we compare the data of point number 1 with the data available for point number 2, what we found out that only 94 people with a proper designation were travelled under VIP/ Emergency Quota in SC DNR SF Express (12791) from 06-11-2023 to 11-11-2023.
For the remaining 284 seats which was allotted by railway officials under VIP/ Emergency Quota, CPIO mark the seat designation space as NP i.e. There are no passengers with the designation in the category.
There is a possibility that CPIO mistakenly leave the seat designation space as NP or forgot to provide the remaining class VIP Quota Allotment Details OR there is also a strong possibility that Non Entitled Persons travelled on that seats by confirming their seats under VIP/ Emergency Quota through their connections or by paying railway officials some amount that's why the designation is not available for that remaining 284 seats.
We are not putting any allegations against anyone, we only try to point out a possible possibility.
Applicant doesn't push his RTI application by filing first appeal to first appellate authority because first appeal is a waste of time and of no use.
Also Indian Railways store the details of VIP/ Emergency Quota allotment for 3 months. This 3 months time period gave them a protection to not to get caught in case they are allotting VIP Quota seats to non entitled person. After that time period is finish they delete/ destroy any material related to the VIP Quota seat allotment.
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