Congress retorts to RTI revelation, Railways spent Rs 69 lakh in Lucknow to ‘catch rats’

A Right to Information (RTI) request revealed that the Northern Railways’ Lucknow division spent almost Rs 69 lakh on rat control in three years. Chandrashekhar Gaur, an RTI activist, has inquired about the sum of money spent by the Indian Railways on rat-catching operations.

The Lucknow division of Northern Railways spent Rs 69.5 lakh between 2020 and 2022 to trap rats, and 168 rats were caught, according to the response to Gaur’s RTI request.

Congressman Randeep Singh Surjewala responded to the Lucknow division’s response to the question by alleging that ‘rats of corruption’ are stealing from people all over the nation.

‘Railways spent Rs Rs 41,000 and 6 days on catching a rat! By spending a total of Rs 69 lakh 40 thousand, 156 rats were caught in 3 years! This is the condition of Lucknow region alone,’ he wrote on X (formerly known as Twitter).

The Northern Railways is made up of 5 divisions: Delhi, Ambala, Lucknow, Firozpur, and Moradabad. All of these divisions were questioned over their rat-catching expenses.

According to the RTI response, the number of rodents captured each year during the preceding three years is as follows:

2020: 83

2021: 45

2022: 40

After a news site reported on the RTI response, the Lucknow division released a statement claiming that the money spent on trapping rats covers a wide range of pest and rodent management initiatives.

‘Spraying of a flushing agent to prevent cockroach infestation, preventing entry of rodents into train coaches by disinfecting stabling and maintenance lines, fogging activities etc., are included in the work to catch rats,’ the official statement read.

‘The work is more of a preventive nature rather than actively catching rodents. The total cost as mentioned in the article, is Rs 23.2 lakh per year for the comprehensive control of cockroaches, rodents, bed bugs, mosquitoes in all coaches maintained at Lucknow Division,’ it further read.

The expenditure, according to the Lucknow division, is ‘minimal’ and affects 25,000 coaches annually at a cost of Rs 94.