Senior citizens to lose concessions as Railways set to roll back restrictions

An elderly man inside a train. Concessions were withdrawn to discourage people from travelling. Representation pic

A Cryptic Right to Information (RTI) response by the Indian Railways, stating that restoring concessions to all categories of passengers was not desirable due to losses, has triggered a fear that senior citizen concessions may not be restored at all. Railways has rolled back most restrictions implemented during the COVID-19-induced lockdown and only a handful remain to be rolled back.

Concessions to all categories of passengers, except for four categories of Divyangjan and 11 categories of patients and students, had been withdrawn from March 20, 2020 to discourage people from travelling in view of the pandemic and the COVID protocol.

Rakhi Tripathi, who recently booked a ticket for her senior citizen father, said, "With no senior citizen concessions and a rise in railway prices, senior citizens are now paying 2.5 times more price than last year for sleeper class. For AC class it is even higher."

An undated pic of Pankaj Oswal, a senior citizen, who filed the RTI query

"I had filed an RTI query on February 27 as there had been too many queries from senior citizens and there was absolutely no clarity on the status of concessions for tickets. I had asked if it was a decision of the Central or state government. I had also wanted to know what happened to half-ticket facilities for children which were available pre-pandemic. However, the reply I received from them is shocking," said Pankaj Oswal, a senior citizen.

The RTI reply dated March 2 by Indian Railways said that it had faced enough losses during the pandemic-related lockdown with ticket concessions "weighing heavily", hence restoring concessions to all was not desirable.

"When railways have restored all services, why have they not reintroduced concessions for the elderly? Now that they are vaccinated and also had booster doses, they would like to move out," senior citizen Brahamanapalle Murthy said.

"The special status of all the trains has now been removed, yet senior citizen concession is not given. This is illegal," said Vivek Chauhan, another commuter. Before March 2020, 50 per cent discount was given to women senior citizens and 40 per cent to men senior citizens for all classes.

A passenger gets tested at Dadar station. File pic

Commenting on the issue, railway spokesperson said that as per the latest directive only unreserved tickets had been opened up for the general public from the advance reservation period of 120 days and no concessions of any kind had been restored.

Explaining further, he said unreserved tickets have now been opened up for the general public but not immediately. The existing unreserved coaches on trains had become "reserved only" during the pandemic and reserved tickets have been booked on these trains for the next 120 days. Once this period is over, these coaches will be available for general passengers and unreserved tickets will be available.

Feb 27
Day the RTI query was filed on restoring concessions