Due to heavy financial burden, the Government is considering either abolishing or cutting down on the concessions given to Senior Citizens and Differently abled people. This will be applicable for passengers travelling with trains like Rajdhani and Shatabdi. This year, no budget has been allocated by the Finance Ministry for this purpose.
The Railway Board claims that more than INR 1400 Cr is spent on giving concessions to the different sections of society including students, farmers, war widows, cancer patients and more. A maximum percentage of concession is granted to senior citizens which results in a huge loss for the railways. As a rule, the senior citizen concession at present is 40% for male passengers and 50% for female passengers. Male passengers can avail the concession after attaining 60 years of age and female passengers can avail it after attaining 58 years of age.
Rail Minister, Shri Suresh Prabhu is set to make an appeal to the financially strong senior citizens to let go of their concession. He also says that passengers travelling in AC 1-tier, 2-tier and 3-tier should not be given any concessions. According to the officials, the decision regarding concessions would be finalised by the Rail Development Authority of India in August.
