Don’t stop concession given to elderly in railways: Arvind Kejriwal writes to PM Modi

 

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking the resumption of concessions given to senior citizens in rail travel.

Sharing the letter on Twitter, Kejriwal said, “Please do not stop the concession given to the elderly in the railways. Crores of elderly people are benefiting from this concession.”

Calling the Modi-led BJP government’s decision to scrap the concession “unfortunate,” the CM wrote that “in our ego, we should not forget that it is the elderly people whose blessings keep us going in life”.

He also compared the Central government’s decision with his government’s move to take senior citizens on pilgrimage sites free of cost. “Delhi is making progress because we have the blessings of our elderly people,” Kejriwal noted.

Taking a dig at the Union government, he further said that “it is not about money, but the intention behind it.” Calling the amount, Rs 1600 crore, to be spent on the concession a drop in the ocean of the Union budget, Kejriwal said, ” Neither the Centre will become rich by saving this amount or become poor by spending it. But in the latter case, we are sending out a message to our senior citizens that we don’t care for them. This is strictly against Indian tradition.”

In conclusion, the Delhi CM noted that upon interactions with many elderly people, he has reckoned that the removal of concession is causing a lot of inconvenience to them. He urged the prime minister to reconsider the decision made by his government.

In 2020, the Centre had discontinued the concessions granted to senior citizens to discourage the movement of the public to arrest the spread of COVID-19.

Recently, a parliamentary standing committee recommended the resumption of the fare concession offered to senior citizens by the railways.

The Indian Railways used to offer a 40 per cent discount in fares to males aged 60 years or above and for females, a 50 per cent discount was given if the minimum age was 58 years.

The concessions were granted in fares of all classes of Mail/Express/Rajdhani/ Shatabdi/Duranto group of trains but were withdrawn on March 20, 2020.

The Railways, however, said it had no immediate plans to resume the concession.

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