You may soon find it difficult to book Taktal ticket

Booking a train ticket last minute through travel agents is a most common practice in India, but things would be difficult to do so as Railway Minister has decided to tighten the screws.
 
The move came in the wake of information received about running of illegal operations to book tatkal tickets of Indian Railways in illegal manner.
 
Generally, train tickets under Tatkal category are opened for booking at around 10 AM for people travelling in AC class and for those opting non-AC coaches – the booking is available from 11 AM.
 
Tatkal ticket windows are open for trains departing the next day, but has a fixed number of seats in each coach and are given on emergency cases. The price for booking tatkal tickets are usually higher compared to the regular train tickets.
 
Railway Minister Piyush Goyal has directed the IRCTC and the Centre for Railway Information Systems (CRIS) to strengthen cyber security in the wake of alleged ticketing scam unearthed by the CBI, said a PTI report.
 
The Ministry in a statement said, “Information was received about running of illegal operations to book tatkal tickets of Indian Railways in illegal manner. After swift enquiry, it was found that Ajay Garg, ex-IRCTC employee and presently working with the CBI, was the kingpin of this entire network which involved numerous other persons.”
 
The Central Bureau Investigation (CBI) accused these two men, for hampering the system of Indian railways, and being the brain behind illegal software that destabilized the railways reservation system, allowing many agents to book hundreds of Tatkal tickets in a span of few seconds, the agency report said.
 
The CBI carried out the probe and came out with the startling revelations. It has reportedly arrested 10 agents--seven from Jaunpur and three from Mumbai.
 
After carrying out searches in 14 locations in Delhi, Mumbai and Jaunpur, the CBI recovered Rs 89.42 lakh in cash, gold jewellery valuing up to Rs 61.29 lakh, 15 laptops, 15 hard discs, 52 mobile phones, 24 sim card, 10 notes, six routers, four dongles and 19 pen drives, as per PTI report.
 
Goyal, who sought stringent measures to stop such manipulation of railway tickets, has ordered to continue the probe and identify similar cases which are causing inconvenience to genuine passengers.