Indian Railways Trains has a quota of seats popularly known as VIP/ Emergency Quota. Seats under this quota is only 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 Telangana Express (12723) which originated from Hyderabad Decan Railway Station and the destination is New Delhi Railway Station.
The details sought in the RTI in 2 points are mentioned below :-
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 Telangana Express. (Kindly provide day wise categorisation of allotted seats).
Kindly provide the designation of each traveller travelled under VIP Quota/ Emergency Quota in Telangana Express from 06-11-2023 to 11-11-2023 in each class. (Sleeper Class, 3AC, 2AC, 1AC)..(Kindly provide day wise categorisation of allotted seats).
The objective behind filing such type of RTI is to make sure that officials of Indian Railways does not involve in any corruption by allotting this seats of VIP/ Emergency Quota to non entitled persons.
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 Telangana Express (12723) are :-
Designation of Travellers who travelled in SC DNR Express (12723) under VIP/ Emergency Quota from 06-11-2023 to 11-11-2023 are as follows :-
Conclusion
Central Public Information Officer (CPIO) provides the information sought in point number 1 and 2 in RTI.
As per the reply of the CPIO for point number 1, a total of 308 people travelled under VIP/ Emergency Quota in Sleeper, 3AC, 2AC and 1AC Class of Telangana Express (12723) 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, we found out that only 97 people with a proper designation were travelled under VIP/ Emergency Quota in Telangana Express (12723) from 06-11-2023 to 11-11-2023.
For the remaining 211 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 complete 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 211 seats.
We are not putting any allegations against anyone, we only try to point out a possible possibility or a outcome as per available records provided by Indian Railways.
Applicant doesn't push his RTI application by filing first appeal to first appellate authority for complete information because first appeal is a waste of time and of no use.
Also Indian Railways store the details of VIP/ Emergency Quota allotment only 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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