Now, 'GiveItUp' scheme in railways on cards

Buoyant over the success of 'Give It Up' LPG subsidy scheme, the Ministry of Railways has also decided to launch similar scheme for giving up the subsidy being paid by the Indian Railways for a passenger's journey. According to a senior official, the ministry is planning to roll out the scheme from August.

So from the next month, while booking a train ticket, a passenger would get options to opt out the subsidy being provided by the Ministry of Railways. "The travellers would get the option to either give it up the 100 per cent of the subsidy or half of it. The options would be available in both reservation slip and online ticket booking forms. It would be totally voluntarily in nature and those who want to avail the subsidy, they are free to do so," the official said. "The give it up subsidy scheme would be available for all categories of passengers such as senior citizens, army personnel, college students, etc. As Railways is already printing the details of subsidy on tickets to create awareness among passengers, the give it up scheme would encourage the well-off passengers to opt out the government subsidy," the official said.

The thought process to implement give it up scheme started in Railways after a good Samaritan offered to refund the subsidy amount paid for his journey by the Indian Railways as per the reservation rules. The senior citizen, Avtar Krishen Kher, enclosed a cheque in the name of IRCTC for the differential amount of the actual fare and the subsidy.

The passenger sent the subsidy amount when he came to know that Railways is paying such amount of subsidy on passengers after Railways started printing the detail of the subsidy "burden" it is bearing on the train tickets to make passengers aware of the "real cost" involved in the travel.

Even though in the past, LPG gas consumers have voluntarily offered to opt out from the subsidy scheme on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's appeal, this is perhaps one such case for the Railways which has now made the country's largest transporter think about going along the lines of gas consumers.

Currently, the loss in the passenger segment is Rs 34,000 crore annually which is met through cross-subsidy from freight earnings.

A national academy for training in railway security will soon be set up by the government keeping in mind the threat to the public transporter.

Besides the railways will also speed up the creation of an advanced commando training facility for Railway Protection Force (RPF) personnel. "Both these institutions will come up in Andhra Pradesh and we have identified land for the purpose," said a senior Railway Ministry official. The National Academy of Railway Security, a first of its kind in the country, will come up on 33 cares of land in Vijaywada in Andhra, as a centre of excellence in providing training in rail-related security for railway security personnel of India (GRP/RPF) as well as abroad.