67 ticketless travellers on Palace on Wheels

By Vinay Kumar

NEW DELHI, SEPT. 9. After winding up the surprise check on the super-luxury tourist train ``Palace on Wheels'', the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) today said 67 passengers, including Government officials and journalists, were found travelling without tickets, causing a loss of nearly Rs. 80 lakhs to the Railways.

The agency spokesman, Mr. S.M.Khan, told The Hindu that 11 unlisted persons on the train were relatives and family members of the Rajasthan Tourism Development Corporation (RTDC) and Government officials.

The check was carried out after the agency received the information that a large number of passengers were travelling without ticket, reportedly in collusion with the railway officials.

Vehemently denying reports that foreign tourists were put to inconvenience during the raid, Mr. Khan said ``not a single foreign tourist was questioned.'' He said that the list of foreign tourists on the train had been obtained in advance by the CBI and all of them had valid tickets.

He said only eight passengers were allowed to avail of the complimentary travel in the train during a trip. With each ticket costing $2,500 for foreign tourists and its equivalent (Rs. 1.18 lakhs) for Indian passengers, presence of a large number of passengers without tickets meant a huge loss to the Government.

The CBI spokesman said the check was conducted with written orders and it began on Saturday morning at Mandore and continued till Jodhpur. The check was called off today but the train was not detained ``even for a minute'' and there had been no dislocation of the schedule during the trip, Mr. Khan claimed.

The agency officials were busy preparing a report and would examine if a case could be made out for causing loss to the Government and if the complicity of the officials could be brought out.

`Wait for next step'

PTI reports from Jaipur:

Mr. M.R. Kadole, DSP, CBI, Jodhpur, who headed the search team, said the raid was conducted under Union Home Ministry orders.

He said there was no written order but only an oral order by CBI Jodhpur office to conduct the raid. ``I will be reporting the entire matter to the SP (CBI), Jodhpur. Wait and watch for the next step whether there will any FIR''.

`Political conspiracy'

The raid touched off a controversy today with a senior Rajasthan official alleging the action was a ``political conspiracy'' to tarnish the Ashok Gehlot Government in the State.

The RTDC Chairman, Mr. Rajiv Arora, dared the CBI to come up with facts if there was anything wrong with the annual ``familiarisation'' trip.

``The CBI action was an `act of political conspiracy to tarnish the profit-making corporation and Gehlot Government,'' he told a press conference here adding ``I am working on to diagnose this conspiracy very soon. Wait for a few days. If the CBI finds anything wrong, let them come up with the facts''.

The Tourism, Art and Culture department has issued a letter to the RTDC Managing Director to submit a report on the raid by tomorrow afternoon and a detailed report by September 13.

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