Railways remains mum on elderly concession despite parliamentary panel nudge

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Photo credit twitter Abhishek Patwa

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By Our Special Correspondent

New Delhi, March 29: The Ministry of Railways has once more maintained stoic silence over the demands for restoring train ticket concessions for the senior citizen passengers. A Parliamentary standing committee in its reports had previously nudged the Ministry of Railways to at least restore the concessions for senior citizens in sleeper class and 3 AC compartments.

Lok Sabha MPs Veeraswamy Kalanidhi and Deepak Adhikari stated in their starred question, “Whether the Government is aware that ending the concession for the elderly is unfortunate as this relief to the elderly is seen as a burden.” The MPs sought to know from the government if the concession in the train travel would be restored.

“The concession to senior citizens in passenger fare has been withdrawn from March 20, 2020. Revenue foregone due to concessions in passenger fare to senior citizens during 2019-20 was approximately ₹1667 crore,” said the Ministry of Railways in a written reply in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday.

The Ministry didn’t respond to the specific question of restoring the concession. It may be recalled that the Parliamentary panel had argued for restoring the concessions for the elderly passengers to lessen the burden on them. On the contrary, the Ministry of Railways stuck to its often repeated alibi that “Government gave subsidy of ₹59,837 crore on passenger tickets in 2019-20. This amounts to concession of 53 per cent on an average, to every person, travelling on Railways. This subsidy is continuing for all passengers.”

The Railways argued that “further concessions beyond this subsidy amount are continuing for many categories like Divyangjans, students and patients”. What the Railways says about giving subsidies in passenger fare is actually cross-subsidisation, as the national transporter runs the freight trains on commercial terms to make bulk of its revenue. However, the passenger fare in 3 AC and 2 AC are seen to be touching the ceiling, which has restrained the Railways from further hiking the passenger fares.

The Ministry said that with a view to provide lower berths to senior citizens there is a provision to allot lower berths automatically to the elderlies, female passengers of 45 years and above even if no choice is given, subject to availability of such accommodation at the time of booking. “Earmarking of a combined quota of six to seven lower berths per coach in Sleeper class, four to five lower berths per coach each in Air Conditioned 3 tier (3AC) and three to four lower berths per coach in Air Conditioned 2 tier (2AC) classes (depending on the number of coaches of that class in the train) for senior citizens, female passengers of 45 years of age and above and pregnant women is also done,” added the Railways.

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