RS asks MPS to cancel railway tickets in time

A lawmaker of the Rajya Sabha didn’t use 85% of his booked rail tickets in a month — but the House had to anyway pay the bill because he didn’t bother to cancel.

The fact came to light during the Rajya Sabha secretariat’s analysis of train booking by members as part of an effort to curb wasteful expenses. House officials on Wednesday informed its members that if they don’t cancel their extra tickets, cancellation charges would be recovered from them.

Parliamentarians are entitled to travel any time in a train in first-class AC or executive class. They can also be accompanied by a person in air-conditioned twotier, while travelling by rail, according to the official handbook of MPS.

While the number of air tickets for an MP is capped at 34 a year, there is no such restriction on train tickets. “An MP or their aide might book several tickets on different dates or trains and finally travel as per their convenience,” said an official.

Even as the Rajya Sabha secretariat acknowledges the workload of Mps—visiting their constituency, attending social events or parliamentary meetings and other duties as a political leader—they are worried about unutilised tickets. “A former member made 63 train bookings in just one month but availed only 7. The secretariat had to pay for all 63 bookings even as 87% of the bookings were just wasted,” said an official.

Made over 23 days in January last year, these bookings cost a total of ₹1.69 lakh. “The fare for his actual travel stood at just ₹22,085. But the secretariat paid an extra ₹1.46 lakhs,” said the analysis.

Indian Railways raises its bill every January for all the bookings done throughout the year. For 2019, it submitted a total bill of ₹7.8 crores to Parliament, out of which one-third is to be paid by the Rajya Sabha and the rest by the Lok Sabha Secretariat.

Rajya Sabha secretary general Desh Dipak Verma issued a note requesting members to cancel extra tickets in time. “Multiple bookings are being made by some members in various trains departing from same/different stations to different destination stations for the same day. Rajya Sabha Secretariat has to make payments to the Ministry of Railways even for those bookings which are actually not utilized by the members,” Verma wrote.

Reminding MPS of unnecessary expenses, especially at a time when Indian Parliament is undertaking drastic measures to cut costs, Verma said, “In case of non-cancellation of bookings which are not actually utilised by the members, the amount of fare of such bookings shall be recovered from the members.”