During 2019-20, 22.62 lakh senior citizen passengers had opted to give up concession scheme in passenger fare and gave up concessions for the sustained development of Railways with better facilities
Representational image. PTI
The Indian Railways continues to refuse concessions to senior citizens citing subsidy bills, data accessed through RTI inquires revealed.
Ministry of Railway released a document answering some RTI queries on Wednesday.
Even after the end of the first and second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, the railways are yet to restore concessions on train fares for senior citizens. The Indian Railways withdrew concessions for senior citizens in March 2020, but continued to subsidise train tickets for Members of Parliament (MPs) and ex MPs, NDTV said in a report.
The Ministry of Railways said in an RTI that passenger fare in most of the classes was very low. It added that the passenger segment over Indian Railways has suffered recurring loss due to low fare and concessions to different categories of passengers.
“Indian Railways is already bearing more than 50% of the cost of travel on an average for all passengers including senior citizens on account of lower fare structure for passenger services,” the reply to RTI said.
The ministry further said, “Due to COVD-19, passenger earnings for the last two years is less in comparison to 2019- 2020.”
“These have long term impact on the financial health of the Railways. Cost of granting concessions weighs heavily on Railways, hence extending scope of concessions to all categories of passengers including senior citizens is not desirable. In spite of these challenges, Indian Railways has continued concession in fare to four categories of persons with disabilities, eleven categories of patients and students,” the ministry further said in response to an RTI.
Railways operate different types of train services like Garib Rath, Rajdhani, Shatabdi, Duronto, Vande Bharat, Gatimaan, Tejas, Humsafar, Mail/Express, Ordinary passenger etc. Apart from this, different classes 1 st AC, 2nd AC, 3rd AC, AC Chair Car, sleeper class, second class reserved/Unreserved, etc. are available on different fare structures for the use of passengers including senior citizens who can travel as per their preferences.
Apart from this during 2019-20, 22.62 lakh senior citizen passengers had opted to give up concession scheme in passenger fare and gave up concessions for the sustained development of Railways with better facilities.
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