Now, palmtops to give berth to waitlisted passengers -- IS THIS NEEDED ?

I came across this news in economic times on various IT initiatives taken by Indian Railways -

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/News_By_Industry/Transportation/Railways/Now_palmtops_to_give_berth_to_waitlisted_passengers/articleshow/2867496.cms

Though at first looks it seems very convenient to have this facility but I wonder if this is something which is needed at this point when similar facilities provided by Indian railways are not working well because of widespread corruption in Indian railways.

Current Reservations facility is something very similar to this which Indian railways introduced few years back. I was traveling recently from Kota to Ujjain and I had to travel on 12 hr. notice. I tried to book ticket online for II class but reservations on www.irctc.co.in were closed for chart preparation even though site was showing that seats are available for that class. I was optimistic that I will get the reservation on current reservation counter on Kota railway station since seats were available. But when I reached at the counter, TTE who was in-charge of counter told me that they haven't received the current status of seats on the trains yet from the central system and they don't know the status of seat availability. (I was surprised to see that IT savvy Lalu's railways is trying to implement lot of IT systems but at ground level system doesn't seems to work). But to surprise, I saw another TTE their who was in-charge of that particular train which was going from Kota to Ujjain and he seems to knew about seat availability somehow :-). He started allocating the seats to passengers waiting in current reservation line by taking 100 Rs. per person and without issuing any receipt or ticket. He just marked seat numbers on a piece of paper. He was very cautious while accepting the bribe and was looking all around. I guess everybody has fear of hidden cameras now a days :-) Thanks to news channels like Aaj Tak etc.

My only appeal from Railway minister will be to get rid of corruption first in the system and then analyze if this investment in technology is needed at this point of time. I am sure giving palmtops will not help if corruption is not eradicated. Indian Railways TTEs will always find excuses for palmtop not working :-)

P.S. :- This post is not targeted to Indian Railways employees in general. This is only targeted for who take bribe and bring shame to Indian Railways.