News Brief
Parliamentary Panel Seeks Review Of Railway Concessions Policy; Recommends Smart Cards For Pass-Holders
- Parliamentary panel seeks to ensure genuineness of pass-holders benefiting under 'freedom fighters and their widows' category.
A passenger at a railway station.
A parliamentary panel has directed the Railway Ministry to check the genuineness of 10,435 concessional pass-holders who have received government reimbursement of nearly Rs 33.7 crore under the ‘freedom fighters and their widows’ category 2016 and 2018.
The panel has recommended that smart cards should be issued to bonafide pass-holders.
The committee on railways said such beneficiaries must be in the age group of 85-90 years since almost 75 years have elapsed since independence. It has recommended that to prevent the misuse of the scheme, the railways should be “vigilant and take stringent actions” and undertake regular audits.
Indian Railways issues complimentary card passes on a lifetime basis to the beneficiaries identified for free rail travel in First Class and 2AC along with one companion in the same class by any train.
As part of their social service obligations, the railways also extends concessions in passenger fare to more than 50 categories of passengers. The panel found that the national transporter also provides concessions to railway employees by way of privilege passes or privilege ticket order and complimentary passes.
In its report, the committee mentioned that the quantum of revenue forgone in the passenger earnings segment because of concessions was Rs 1,670 crore during 2016-17, Rs 1,810 crore during 2017-18 and Rs 1,995 crore during 2018-19 which is a substantial burden on the railway finances.
The panel has recommended the ministry to take proactive steps to review the criterion for granting concessions with a view to containing the amount of concessions granted and to have an internal mechanism in place to exercise control over the misuse of privilege passes or privilege ticket order and complimentary passes from their employees
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