Indian Railways: Regarding the discounts available to senior citizens in train tickets, Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw told why the Railways has canceled these discounts. Along with this, he said that the health of the railways has been affected due to the corona epidemic.
Indian Railways: The government had postponed the exemption given to senior citizens in train tickets since the Corona period, after which it is discussed whether the Ministry of Railways has started giving this exemption to senior citizens. will do it or not. Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw gave this answer in reply to a written question in Lok Sabha on Wednesday. The Railway Minister said that giving concession in tickets to passengers already puts a lot of burden on the Railways. In view of this, the discount on train tickets of all categories has been canceled. However, despite this, some people still get discounts on train tickets.
Pressure on railways
Railway Minister Vaishnav said that Indian Railways is already bearing more than 50 per cent of the service and travel cost of all categories of passengers including senior citizens due to low fares.
He said that for the last two years, due to the corona virus, the income from passengers is much less than that of 2019-20. This has a profound impact on the economic health of the Railways. Along with this, giving discounts to passengers in different categories has a deep impact on the railways. Therefore, it is not right to extend the discount coverage to all categories including senior citizens.
They are getting discount
He said that despite all these challenges, Indian Railways continues to give concession in fares to persons with disabilities in four categories and sick and students in 11 categories.
So many senior citizens traveled
He also informed that the number of senior citizen passengers traveling in reserved classes during 2019-20, 2020-21 and 2021-22 is 6.18 crore, 1.90 crore and 5.55 crore respectively. The Railway Minister said that due to the Corona epidemic, the number of senior citizens traveling by train has come down.
