Indian Railways: The concession in fare to senior citizens for traveling by train has not been restored yet. Recently, Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnav had also said that no thought has been taken on this yet. Now CPI MP Vinay Vishwam has written a letter to the Railway Minister regarding this. Â
Indian Railways: After the reduction in the cases of corona, the facilities are being gradually restored by the Indian Railways. Recently, the railways has started the facility of bed roll in the journey. Earlier, the facility of installing unreserved coaches in trains has also been started. After this, passengers are able to travel short distances at less cost than before.
There was a lot of demand from the people
But the exemption given in the ticket to senior citizens has not been started by the railways. A lot of demand was also made on behalf of the people regarding this. Let us tell you that before the Corona period, 50 percent discount was given to senior citizens by the railways in the fare. But in the year 2020, when the cases of corona increased, the government had suspended it.
Exemption will put burden on railways
Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnav had said in March on people’s demand for discounts on tickets that the revenue of the Railways in the year 2020-21 was less than the Kovid period (2019-20) due to the challenges arising out of Corona. In such a situation, if the passengers are given exemption, then there will be a lot of burden on the railways. He had told that many exemptions given earlier, including senior citizens, are not yet considered.
Provision of 40 and 50 percent discount
Let us tell you that senior citizens were given a discount in the fare from the railways on taking tickets for any class. In this, there was a provision of 50 percent discount for women and 40 percent for men. For this, the minimum age of women was required to be 58 and for men it was 60 years.
CPI MP demands to start exemption
Now Communist Party of India (CPI) MP Vinay Vishwam has requested Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw to resume the exemption given to senior citizens in rail fares. He said that this facility, which has been suspended since the outbreak of Kovid-19 epidemic, should be started again.
The rules were changed keeping in mind the Kovid
In the letter written by Vishwam, it was said that crores of elderly people have been affected by the withdrawal of exemption given to senior citizens. He also said that at that time this decision was taken keeping Kovid in mind. But now there is a demand from senior citizens to start that facility again and again.
Big loss to people due to loss of facility
He said that it is unfortunate that a global pandemic like Kovid-19 was used to remove these concessions, which caused a lot of damage to the people. He said that from March 2020 to March 2022, more than 7 crore senior citizens used the railways. This shows the effect of abolishing the exemption.
In his letter to the Railway Minister, Vishwam wrote, I request you to restore the exemption for senior citizens in the Railways. Not all senior citizens are in a position to pay the full ticket money. They are facing a lot of difficulty due to the end of the exemption.
