No train concession for senior citizens but MPs avail crores in subsidy: RTI response
While MPs enjoyed crores in free and discounted train tickets, the Indian Railways has been refusing concessions to senior citizens citing the need to cut its subsidy bills, documents accessed under the Right to Information (RTI) Act show.
The Indian Railways withdrew concessions for senior citizens in March 2020, but continued to subsidise train tickets for Members of Parliament (MPs) and ex-MPs. Data accessed through RTI queries shows the centre has spent more than Rs 62 crore in concessions on railway travel for MPs and former MPs in the last five years.
While sitting MPs are entitled to use the railways’ first class air-conditioned or executive class for free, their spouses, too, can avail free travel under certain conditions. Former MPs are also entitled to travel in any train in AC-2 tier along with a companion or in AC-1 if alone.
Free passes for MPs
In the response to a RTI application, the Lok Sabha Secretariat said it has received a bill of Rs 35.21 crore from the Indian Railways for the travel of sitting MPs and Rs 26.82 crore for former MPs during 2017-2018 to 2021-22. According to the response, the MPs and ex-MPs used the railway passes even during the pandemic-hit year of 2020-21 when their bill was Rs 1.29 crore and Rs 1.18 crore, respectively.
Also read: Railways abolished 72,000 jobs in 6 years; which posts went, and why?
Last year the Rajya Sabha Secretariat also found randomly that 87 per cent of the total cost of journeys have not been undertaken and neither were cancelled but the Secretariat had to reimburse to the Railways.
In its reply to an RTI query filed by Chandra Shekhar Gaur, the railways said that between March 20, 2020, and March 31, 2022, 7.31 crore senior citizens travelled without subsidised train tickets. These include 4.46 crore men who are over 60 years old, 2.84 crore women over 58, and 8,310 transgender people.
The revenue from senior citizen passengers who travelled during this period is Rs 3,464 crore, which includes the Rs 1,500 crore earned after the subsidy for them was stopped.
“Even after 30 years of service, we get few privileges compared to MPs and MLAs. We are honest taxpayers. The subsidy should be restored. Our MPs and MLAs get everything under the sun and they get to decide for us. That’s a cruel irony,” Chand George, a retired government employee, told NDTV.
‘No plan to restore concessions’
Even after the end of the first and second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, the railways are yet to restore concessions on train fares for senior citizens.
The railways have earned a revenue of Rs 1,500 crore since the senior citizens’ subsidy was withdrawn in March 2020, the month when the first lockdown amid the pandemic was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
According to government provisions for the elderly, men used to be given a discount of 40 per cent on train tickets and women 50 per cent.
Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw had informed Parliament in March this year that the ministry will not be restoring the concessions yet.
However, The Times of India report on June 8 had quoted BJP’s Wardha MP Ramdas Tadas as saying: “I was told by the officials that the senior citizen fare concession and general coaches will restart from June 29.” Tadas had said this after MPs from Maharashtra’s Vidarbha region met Central Railway general manager Anil Kumar Lahoti in Nagpur demanding restoration of concessions for senior citizens apart from increasing stoppages of certain trains, etc.
