IRCTC removed over 3 crore fake accounts from its portal — meaning roughly 1 in 4 accounts was a bot or tout. The system designed to serve 1.4 billion people was mostly serving a few thousand scalpers wearing 30 million disguises.
Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw informed Parliament that IRCTC has purged over 3.03 crore fake user accounts from its booking portal, created by touts and bots to monopolize the Tatkal ticket window. For years, genuine passengers stared at 'Waiting List' screens while automated scripts dressed as 'Ramesh from Varanasi' and 'Priya from Patna' hoovered up every available seat within milliseconds of release. The minister proudly noted that fewer MPs are now being pestered for ticket confirmations — the true metric of railway reform. IRCTC has now introduced Aadhaar-based OTP verification, which should work perfectly right up until touts figure out how to get 30 million Aadhaar cards.