Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has claimed that all train passengers are getting a 55% discount on their tickets, amid calls to restore the pre-Covid concessions for senior citizens and media persons. Vaishnaw did not directly answer the questions posed by the media on the issue, but said that the Indian Railway was already giving a 55% subsidy to every passenger.
Vaishnaw was in Ahmedabad to inspect the progress of the ongoing bullet train project, among other things.
The Railways used to offer a 50% concession on train tickets to senior citizens and government-recognized journalists before the Covid-19 lockdown was imposed in March 2020.
The railway operations were completely halted during the lockdown, and when they resumed fully in June 2022, the Railway Ministry did not reinstate these concessions. The matter has been raised on various forums, including in both houses of parliament, since then.
Vaishnaw has maintained the same position in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha on several occasions when asked by many parliamentarians.
On Thursday, when the media brought it up during a press conference in Ahmedabad, Vaishnaw said, “If a train ticket to a destination costs Rs 100, the Railway is only charging Rs 45. It is giving Rs 55 subsidy.”
Earlier, in response to an RTI query filed by Chandra Shekhar Gaur, a Madhya Pradesh-based activist, the Indian Railways said that it earned about Rs 2,242 crore from around 15 crore senior citizens in the financial year 2022-23.
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