With Eid-ul-Fitr just around the corner, hordes of commuters are once again facing tremendous difficulty in getting tickets to go home for the holidays.
We need a system of smooth and systematic ticket booking system for the holiday season — something the railway administration has been unable to deliver on. Currently, we are seeing an unfair and corrupt ticketing system in place, where common people are out of luck when trying to purchase tickets in air-conditioned berths.
People should have the right to buy such tickets once counters have opened in a “first come first serve” manner. Even then, there can be a bar to the number of tickets each person is allowed purchase, but reports that all air-conditioned tickets were found sold out before counters even opened to the public is unacceptable.
This problem is a manifestation of the prevalent VIP culture, where certain persons, such as ministers, lawmakers, and top government officials are given the privilege to book tickets before anyone else. And this VIP culture is cause for much travel woes for the masses.
The railway ticketing system is a public enterprise, but the authorities should play fair and ensure that unethical ticketing practices and corruption do not take place.
Year after year, we see the miseries of commuters worsen, as they attempt to go home to spend Eid with their families. With the new speedy Dhaka-Chittagong train scheduled to be inaugurated today, it is hoped the ticketing authorities will refrain from any kind of corruption, and help make Eid travel easier for everyone.
