DGCA cancels refunds of rail, airline tickets booked after demonetisation

New Delhi: The government at Centre has made a strong move to counter the process of people turning their black money into white through Railway and airline facilities. Following the unusual increase in ticket bookings since the announcement of demonetisation by government, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has ordered all the railway and airline ticket counters not to refund the money to the customers if they apply for the cancellation of their tickets.

According to the DGCA the revised norms will be applicable for tickets booked between November 9 and November 11. This rule would not take into account the tickets which were booked online or through cheques.

The case:

• After Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the demonetisation of the old Rs 500 denomination notes and Rs 1000 notes but directed the emergency services including railways and airports to accept the currency notes for passengers’ convenience, a large score of people has reached to the ticket booking counters to turn their black money into white.
• According to railway board large number of first and second class AC tickets were booked through Passenger Reservation System (PRS) counters in an attempt to get it cancelled afterwards.
• The airports also witnessed the same incidents of huge number of tickets being booked through the counters, for the executive class, in view of cancelling them and receiving the new notes.
• According to the air authorities, every single person at the counter was paying Rs 500 and Rs 1000 denomination notes even for the tickets of lesser amount.

It may be mentioned that for the convenience of passengers, railways and airlines have been accepting Rs 500 and Rs 1000 currency notes till November 11 midnight. Other emergency services like hospitals and petrol pumps are also directed to accept old currency notes. After the orders by the government, long queues were seen at railway platforms and airports across country with people booking tickets and many booking were above Rs 50,000.