Joynal Abedin Khan :Black marketeers are still active at railway station, bus and launch terminals in the city to collect tickets through unfair means in liaison with unscrupulous employees, causing immense sufferings to home-bound people ahead of the Eid-ul-Fitr.Despite different measures taken by the authorities to stop these irregularities, the black marketeers are very much active and offering home-bound people tickets at a rate a few times higher than the actual price. As many people have failed to buy tickets after desperately trying standing in long queues for four to five hours, some of them are comfortably wangling it from black marketeers.Allegations are rife that some corrupt employees and officials, who are selling tickets, are giving those to the black marketeers. Now people would be very eager to know why these rackets cannot be busted. According to transport operators, demand for tickets for July 14, 15 and 16 was much higher as the Eid will be celebrated either on July 18 or July 19. During visit to Kamalapur Railway Station on Sunday, it was seen that Bangladesh Railway was selling advance tickets for July 16 while tickets for July 17 will be supplied today (Monday).Each passenger is being allowed to procure maximum four tickets and tickets sold earlier are not being returned, sources said.Keeping Eid festival in mind, railway started the sale of advance ticket on Thursday. A total of 18,000 advance tickets are being sold each day for the intercity train services from Kamalapur Railway Station, added the sources.Passengers of e-tickets are experiencing disruptions as the server goes off-line and sometimes it crashes. They are also temporarily losing money from their cards.Bangladesh Railway had developed the Computer Network System (CNS) aimed at providing hassle-free ticketing. But in practice, the system has made ticketing a hurdle.Meanwhile, the Railway has received thousands of demand letters from ministers, state ministers, members of parliament, secretaries, high officials and professionals demanding luxury seat reservations,” said a Railway Ministry official, requesting not to be named. According to the Railways Act, although Railway staff and officials are allotted 5 per cent and state VIPs are allotted 5 per cent of tickets, these allotments are not allowed ahead of Eid.This elite pre-booking means that regular paying customers, after spending hours in queue, are being told that luxury seats have been sold out on the very day that the tickets were supposed to be up for “advanced sales.”A Railway official said that 67 trains depart from Kamalapur Railway Station each day, carrying up to 45,000 passengers. During the Eid rush, up to 50,000 passengers will depart every day.Railway Minister Mazibul Hoque said: “Luxury seats are limited, but regular customers should be able to purchase the majority of the luxury seat tickets. I will take action if I find any mismanagement in ticket sales.” On the other hand, thousands of people are still looking for bus tickets as they failed to buy advance tickets.Many ticket aspirants alleged that a large number of bus tickets for July 14, 15 and 16 had been sold to black marketeers, forcing them to purchase tickets at much higher prices. However, bus operators denied the allegation brought against them.After visiting the bus counters at Panthapath, Kalabagan, College Gate, Shyamoli, Kalyanpur, Technical and Gabtoli, this reporter found that hundreds of ticket aspirants were trying hard to get tickets. Jamiar Rahman, a Scholl teacher, told The New Nation that at Hanif Paribahan at Shyamoli counter on Sunday that he was looking for tickets to travel by Nilphamari on July 16.”Counter managers told me that there is no ticket left for the day,” he said. Later, he bought three tickets at Tk 1,250 each instead of fixed price of Tk 720 from a man who was standing outside the counter, he claimed.Md Hasanul Karim Sweet, ticketing booth manager at Nabil Paribahan, said bus employees have no scope for black marketing. He claimed that tickets had been sold in presence of hundreds of ticket aspirants, law enforcers and media people. Manager of Hanif Paribahan at Shyamoli, Md Anisur Rahman pointed out that his bus has the capacity of 250 passengers per day against demand for 2,000.President of Bangladesh Bus Truck Owners Association (BBTOA) Faruqe Talukder denied allegation of black marketing of tickets.Rafiqul Islam Talukder, Deputy Manager (Operation) of BRTC said that BRTC’s 900 buses would transport passengers to different districts from Dhaka to different districts form July 14.Thousands of homebound people will also travel by river routes but passengers became hostage in the hands of black marketeers for tickets. The tickets for Eid special service in Barisal-Dhaka river route went to the hands of black marketeers from every launch counter, it was alleged.The passengers are looking for tickets but there is no ticket. But if anyone offers extra money, the black marketeers are supplying them the desired tickets.Launch passengers complained that most of the tickets of luxurious launches like Suravi, Sundarban, Kirtankhola went to the black marketers. Showing fake names and addresses, the black marketers took tickets from the launch authorities.The launch authorities sold the tickets to black marketers for extra money and the black marketeers are now selling the tickets to general passengers in double or triple price, it was further alleged.Following the allegation, Barisal Zone’s Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTC) Deputy Director Abul Bashar told the New Nation that actions have been taken against black marketeers. Meanwhile, Inspector General of Police (IGP) AKM Shahidul Haque said on Saturday the government would take stern action against those who would be found involved in selling of tickets in the black market.
