A random analysis for January 2019 done by the Rajya Sabha Secretariat revealed that a former member of the Upper House had made 63 rail bookings, but of these, he actually travelled only on seven occasions.
This was not just an isolated case. The RS Secretariat has noticed large-scale booking of rail tickets by both sitting and former members which are not utilised by them.
On Thursday, Rajya Sabha Secretary-General Desh Deepak Verma issued directions to the members to cancel all the rail bookings that are not likely to be utilised, well in advance.
“It has been noted from the details of debt claims raised by the Ministry of Railways that multiple bookings are being made by some members in various trains departing from same/different stations to different destination stations for the same day. The Rajya Sabha Secretariat has to make payments to the Ministry of Railways even for those bookings which are not utilised by the member,” Mr. Verma wrote.
If the unused tickets are not cancelled by the member, the fare shall be recovered from the member, he further said in the directive.
Excess expenditure
This stern memo was prompted by a random analysis which revealed that the majority of the rail bookings done by the members are not actually utilised. “We found that one of the former members had 63 bookings costing a total of ₹1,69,005, while the member actually confirmed having travelled by train only on seven occasions, amounting to a total fare of ₹22,085. So the Rajya Sabha Secretariat paid 87 per cent extra,” a senior RS official said.
A similar trend was spotted in another case where a sitting member utilised only 15 per cent of the rail bookings made by him in January 2019. Sources said a detailed study would be done on the rail bookings made by the members.
