Bangladesh Railway is refusing to sell air conditioned first class tickets for Dhaka-Rajshahi and Dhaka-Dinajpur inter-city trains to ordinary passengers as
those have been ‘reserved’ for influential people before the Eid festival.
People who went to Kamalapur railway station on Monday said the BR staff had refused to sell tickets for berths and first-class coaches of the trains that would travel to Rajshahi and Dinajpur on the occasion of the Eid.
The tickets have been reserved for influential people, including ministers, state ministers, bureaucrats, bankers, corporate executives and high officials of the police, they said quoting the BR staff.
But railways minister Mohammad Mazibul Haque denied the allegations saying he had no such information. He warned that stern action would be taken against the officials who were involved in such irregularities.
He, however, advised the passengers to come up with ‘specific allegations’.
A security officer at the station said they had to reserve many tickets for VIPs who had asked for those.
Jamil, Hasib and Rakibul who came to buy tickets for Dinajpur inter-city trains told New Age that they had
to be satisfied with tickets for second-class coaches.
The demand for railway tickets before the Eid shoots up because train journey is a little hassle-free compared to travel by buses and cars on the congested national highways.
Like the pervious year, people who want to celebrate the Eid festival at their country homes have been swarming Kamalapur railway station since the BR started selling advance tickets on Friday.
Murad and Firoz have been waiting at the station for tickets since Sunday. But they said they could not collect tickets for air-conditioned coaches to travel to their home town in Rajshahi. They said that the BR should have announced its plans before.
Some women alleged that there should be at least two counters for selling tickets to women as the only one counter for them at the station could not cope with the Eid-time rush.
The railway sources said that since Friday it had sold 14,149 tickets everyday of which 3,246 tickets were reserved for e-ticketing, 722 for VIPs, 722 for railway staff, 818 regular quota and 9,370 for general people.
Tickets for Dinajpur-bound Drutojan Express were sold out by 11:45am on Monday and no tickets for Chittagong-bound Subarna Express were available after 11:50am.
Dhaka railway police said it had arrested eight ticket touts at the station on Monday.
Our correspondent in Chittagong reported that home-bound people from the port city were suffering a lot from shortage of train tickets which were sold out within a few hours after start of advance sales every day.
Most of the people waiting in queues for long hours at the station return empty-handed because of shortage of tickets.
-With New Age input
