Senior citizens express ire over Railways for not restoring concessions

Tirupati: The decision of the Central government to remove concessions in fares offered to different categories since March 2020 after the Covid outbreak has been drawing flak from senior citizens and others.

After the imposition of lockdown and cancellation of train services, the railways discontinued all types of concessions saying that they want to discourage the travel by senior citizens for their safety during the pandemic.

After the resumption of train services from June 1, 2020, railways started operating a limited number of trains in different routes which were gradually increased subsequently. By naming all the trains during this period as special trains by slightly changing the numbers, the railways have lifted all types of concessions.

Though it has been operating all train services normally now and restored the old numbers as well, the Ministry was somehow not interested in reviving the concessions. With this the senior citizens, media members and other categories were forced to pay full fares which drew severe criticism for these sections.

Sometime back, an RTI reply revealed that almost four crore senior citizens have been able to pay full fare for their travel since the concession was removed. It was learnt that the railways used to offer 53 different types of concessions which were withdrawn except four categories of 'Divyangan' and 11 categories of patients and students.

When The Hans India tried to know the reactions of senior citizens who were travelling during the festival period, they expressed their strong resentment. A passenger from Hyderabad, Krishna Murthy said, "When the people have realised to live with Covid for years together, there is no point in the argument that the railways want to discourage the senior citizens travel. They were only trying to lift the concessions forever in the name of Covid which is nothing but laying more burden on the elderly people."

Another senior citizen said that he travelled to Tirupati to worship Lord Venkateswara but had to pay full fare for the ticket. "We may have to travel to visit our children now and then. The concessions in the fares will be helpful for us. Our financial woes have only increased after the pandemic and the full fares for train tickets has become an additional burden," he maintained.

Some others were also of the view that railways was in no mood to restore the concessions in the near future as they want to earn more money by axing the concessions offered to senior citizens and other sections.

It was learnt that railways lost almost Rs 5 crore per day in 2019-20 because of concessions taking the total to more than Rs 2000 crore for that year.