Former Union railway minister Dinesh Trivedi said the VIP quota is the root cause of rail ticket scams in the country. Trivedi who was in the city on Monday for a programme organised by MoneyLife Foundation said he conducted a probe into the scam when he was in-charge of railways and found that VIPs were the source of such frauds as per a report in DNA by Rajendra Aklekar.

“There is no place for touts and no reason for ticket rackets to take place in Indian Railways as the entire system is computerised. There is accountability and it is strictly monitored. But I kept getting complaints that it was very easy for touts to hover around the railway premises and get any ticket confirmed,” Trivedi said.

“We then decided to get to the root of the problem and found that most of the leakages in the ticketing system came from the VIP quota in which seats are allotted to important people to be used during emergencies. This was the source of all scams as ticket booking under VIP quota is not computerised,” the former minister said. “The VIPs may or may not be aware of what happens under their name, but this quota is being misused in a big way and the leak needs to be plugged immediately. I had taken necessary steps when I was railway minister.”

Names under the emergency quota are released just a few hours before the scheduled departure of the train. One has to apply to the chief commercial manager of the particular railway one wants to travel in, mention the important reason for the journey and request for the release of an emergency ticket. A recommendation by an MP, MLA or an influential person with the application carries more weight. Tourists get little preference in such cases.