Hi All,
Do you will know how big a scam is presently going on in the Indian Railway system.
The vendors on the train selling Tea / Coffee, Water bottles, Cool drinks, snacks, biscuits & chips swindle the public in a big way. They are supposed to sell the above mentioned items as per rates given below:
Tea / Coffee – Rs.7/- But sell for Rs.10/-, Water Bottle for Rs.15/- but sell for Rs.20/-, Cool drinks, snacks, biscuits & chips on MRP. But they overcharge anywhere between Rs.2/- to Rs.5/- over and above the MRP.
Just for estimation sake, look at the following working.
There are 13000 trains approximately that run on daily basis and Indian Railways carry 2.5 crore people daily on an average. Assuming that only 50% of passengers have tea/coffee, water bottle, snacks & other items, an average of Rs.4 overcharging on 1.25 crore people yields 5 crores X 365 days. Wow. A whooping 1825 crores. This is just by selling the above items. Imagine the other items like Samosas, Soup, breakfast, lunch & dinner. It will run into few thousand crores more. This is just on the trains. Imagine the number of stations in the country multiplied by numerous platforms multiplied by numerous stalls on the length of the platforms.
The Indian Railways give contracts & wash of their hands. There is no control measures or vigilance to control overcharging or over pricing. And no punishing the culprits even after complaints. The innocent public is taken for a ride.
The Indian Railways do not educate the public on these prices. They could place price stickers or price plates drilled into the side panels of the compartments and announcements on the public address systems in the stations and a uniform toll free complaint booking number highlighted in every section of the compartment. Immediate action and on the spot detrain the vendors and cancel license of the contractor should bring down this menace.
Another alternative is that the vendors are mandatorily to be made to charge the passengers purchasing these items through POS swipe machines. All passengers do have Credit / Debit Cards in their pockets and it is easy for everyone. Also with many e payment and e-wallet options like Paytm, UPI, Aadhar based payments coming in a big way, the mobile vendors should be made to carry the POS (Point of Sale) Machines or carry the QR Code issued by the Paytm for carrying out payments. Otherwise, the vendors can display the mobile numbers on their uniform to which the payment needs to be transferred.
All mobile vendors / stalls on platforms should be made to use only POS swipe machines or QR Codes or Mobile Numbers for payment transfers. Public / Passengers will also get used to this system of payment is actually trouble free from overcharging and small change problem.
Do you think the Indian Railway officials do not know about these measures? I am sure they work hand in glove with the contractors.
Prime Minister Modi Ji & Minister of Railways Suresh Prabhu ji, No doubt your government is working towards cash less transactions, it is absolute necessary that this move should be taken on a war footing basis to stop this menace and corruption by corrupt officials and contractors. more