Senior citizens: Parliamentary panel asks govt to restore railway concessions

New Delhi: A parliamentary committee has urged the Centre to restore the railway ticket concessions provided to senior citizens who travel by train.

Because of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020-21, the practice of granting 40 to 50 percent concession to senior citizens in railways was stopped and has not been restored since.

The Railways annually spends around Rs. 2,000 crores on senior citizens’ concessions.

Now, the Parliament’s Standing Committee on Railways, headed by BJP MP Radhamohan Singh, has recommended that senior citizens’ concessions be reviewed and restored “urgently,” at least for the sleeper class and AC 3-tier train travel.

In its August 4 report, the committee also urged the railways to give wide publicity to the “give up” scheme, which encourages senior citizens to give up their concessions voluntarily if they can afford it.

The Ministry of Railways said, given the pandemic, concessions to all categories of passengers (except the four types of Divyangjan (Differently Abled Persons), and 11 categories of patients and students, had been withdrawn.

“Since the Railways are heading towards normalcy, they should judiciously consider the concessions granted to different categories of passengers.

“The committee desire that concession to senior citizens which was available in pre-Covid times may be reviewed and considered at least in Sleeper Class and III AC urgently so that the vulnerable and the genuinely needy senior citizens could avail the facility in these classes.”

(VP)