Congress alleges corruption as RTI revels Railways spent ₹69 lakh in two years to ‘catch rats’
Indian Railways after a recent RTI query revealed that the Lucknow division of the Northern Railways spent ₹69.5 lakh between 2020 and 2022 "to catch rats". Reacting to the RTI reply, Surjewala took to X (formally known as Twitter) and wrote, “Railways spent ₹41,000 and six days in catching a rat! By spending a total of ₹69.40 lakh, 156 rats were caught in 3 years! This is the condition of the Lucknow region alone." "All over the country, the ‘rats of corruption’ are picking people's pockets every day… Result: Under BJP rule, people are hit by rampant inflation every day. Even the concession given to the elderly in rail fares has been eaten away! Still, he says - ‘Neither will I eat nor will I let you eat..’ !" Surjewala added.
Earlier, in response to the RTI application filed by activist Chandrashekhar Gaur, the Lucknow division of Northern Railways said the expenses over these two years amounted to around ₹69 lakh and 168 rats were caught - if equated per rat, it comes out to be about ₹41,000. Here is the response to the RTI query: ₹23,16,150.84 has been spent each year during the period from 2019 to 2022 for depots at Lucknow Division for Primary based train year-wise of division towards rodent control. Year-wise detail of no.
of rodents trapped in the previous 3 years are: 2020-83 Nos. 2021-45 Nos. 2022-40 Nos.
The Lucknow division of Northern Railway issued clarification stating that these activities encompass a range of pest control measures, such as using flushing agents to prevent cockroach infestations, disinfecting train coaches to deter rodents, conducting fogging activities, and more. “The work is more of a preventive nature rather than actively catching rodents. Total cost as mentioned in the article of
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