Woman pays ER fine with a cheque

kolkata: if you thought having no money is a reason for travelling without ticket on trains, the experience of ticket checkers may force you to revise your opinion. during one such drive on the eastern railway at naihati, a woman employed with the central bank there, was hauled up for travelling without ticket. she gave a cheque of rs 600 as she did not have 'cash' to pay the fine.just then, her friend arrived and saved her by lending her money and she was released. a well-to-do doctor was also caught travelling without ticket. his explanation? though he bought tickets regularly, he forgot to buy one that particular day. also, when two postal employees were caught, they said they forgot to buy tickets as they were joining work after the weekend. the authorities arrested 817 persons during the drive, out of which 73 were produced before the magistrates for failing to pay their fines. according to er, a huge number of free trippers like these, who are way above the poverty line and happily employed in white-collar jobs, go unchecked everyday. ticketless travel is most rampant in the sealdah division among all the er divisions. according to authorities, only 10 per cent of the people travelling without tickets are unable to pay fine. it is mainly in the south section, at places like canning, where the free trippers are unable to pay up for their offence, said dulal chandra mitra, divisional railway manager of sealdah. although we are having an incremental income of rs 4 crore every month (rs 48 crore annually) after introducing the drives, a huge part of the revenue still remains untapped owing to logistic problems, said an er spokesperson. er incurs a loss of rs 148 crore annually from its suburban section out of which rs 100 crore is attributed to the sealdah division alone. we catch around a 1,000 such persons at any place any time, that speaks of the huge untapped potential, said the spokesperson. a total of 37,888 free trippers were arrested from 44 such drives conducted till now and rs 22 lakh collected from them. the sealdah division has registered an increase of almost 20 per cent ticket sales between april and october 2001, while its earnings have increased by 33 per cent. the er is soon going to introduce simultaneous ticket checking drives in both the main and south sections of the sealdah division.