The Indian Railways has withdrawn the travel ticket concession to other passengers including senior citizens in the fares. However, the national transporter would continue to provide travel concessions to disabled persons and students. According to a Mathrubhumi report, the Ministry of Railways has withdrawn 38 out of 53 travel ticket concessions that passengers were entitled to earlier. Currently, only 15 types of concessions are allowed, among those four come under the differently-abled (Divyangjan) category, while the remaining 11 includes patients’ and student categories among others.
The report also cited that in the patient’s category, concessions up to 50-100 percent will be allowed for persons ailing from cancer, kidney patients, non-infectious leprosy patients among others come under this category. People escorting the patient will also be eligible for a concession in Sleeper Class and AC Class. For the time being, the withdrawn concessions notably include senior citizens, however, confirmed lower berth status will not be changed.
It must be noted that citing the pandemic and covid-19 protocols, the concession to all categories of passengers except the ones mentioned above were withdrawn in March last year. Now, even after trains resumed normal services across the country by discontinuing the special services introduced during the COVID-19 lockdown period, the train ticket concessions prevalent earlier were not restored. As per the ministry, it was not feasible to restore the rail tickets concessions.
Union Railway, Communication and Electronics and Information Technology Minister Ashwini Vaishnav, who in a written reply to a question asked in Lok Sabha in the ongoing Winter Session of the Parliament shared the information, The Mint reported.
The publication also mentioned that the Union Minister said that in view of the pandemic and protocols, the concession in fares for all classes of some passengers will not be restored yet.
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